Over the years people have asked me about the most important books in my library. Here are the essentials, books that have been influential and which I continue to consult and work with. These books are generally available through their publishers, in book stores or online.
Ways of hosting
Agerberck, Brandy, Bird, Kelvy, Bradd, Sam and Shepard, Jennifer. Drawn Together Through Visual Practice.
Baldwin, Christina. Calling the Circle: The first and future culture
Baldwin, Christina and Linnea, Ann. The Circle Way
Brown, Juanita and Isaacs, David, et. al. The World Cafe: Shaping our Future through conversations that matter
Group Pattern Language Project. Group Works: A pattern language for bringing life to meetings and other gatherings.
Herman, Michael and Corrigan, Chris (eds.) Open Space Technology: A User’s NON-Guide
Hogan, Christine. Practical Facilitation: A Toolkit of Techniques.
Holman, Peggy, Cady, Steve and Devane, Tom (eds). The Change Handbook: Large group methods for shaping the future.
Isaacs, William. Dialogue and the art of thinking together.
Kahane, Adam. Transformative Scenario Planning.
Kaner, Sam et. al. The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making
Lipmanowicz, Henri and MacCandless, Keith. The Surprising Power of LIberating Structures.
Owen, Harrison. Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide
Owen, Harrison. Expanding our Now: The story of Open Space Technology
Whitney, Dianna and Trosten-Bloom, A. The power of appreciative inquiry: a practical guide to positive change
Zeher, Howard. The LIttle Book of Restorative Justice
Zubizarreta, Rosa. From Conflict to Creative Collaboration: A user’s guide to Dynamic Facilitation.
Ways of being in organization and community
Atlee, Tom. The Tao of Democracy
Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging
Born, Paul. Deepening Community
Cziksentmihaly, M. Flow.
Etmanski, Al. Impact.
Frost, Peter. Toxic emotions at work
Dressler, Larry. Standing in the Fire
Hassan, Zaid. The Social Labs Revolution.
Herman, Michael. The inviting organization emerges
Hock, Dee. The Birth of the Chaordic Age
Kahane, Adam. Solving Tough Problems
Kurtz, Cynthia. Working with Stories in Your Community or Organization.
Macy, Joanna and Brown, Molly. Coming Back to LIfe.
Mindell, Arnold. The Deep Democracy of Open Forums.
Slade, Samantha. Going Horizontal.
Stilger, Bob. After Now: when we cannot see the future, where do we begin?
Sutherland, Jessie Worldview skills: transforming conflict from the inside out
Ways of leading
Berger, Jennifer Garvey and Johnstone, Keith. Simple Habits for Complex Times
Bushe, Gervase R. Clear Leadership.
Kahane, Adam. Collaborating with the Enemy
Kahane, Adam. Power and Love
McKergow, Mark and Bailey, Helen. Host: Six new roles of engagement.
Schuman, Sandy (ed.) The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation
Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline
Senge, P., Scharmer, O., Jaworski J., Flowers BS. Presence
Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and the New Science
Wheatley, Margaret J. So Far From Home
Theory and practice
Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-Actors.
brown, adrienne maree. Emergent Strategy
Bushe, Gervais and Marshak, Bob (ed.s) Dialogic Organizational Development
Carey, Benedict. How We Learn
D’Souza , Steven and Renner Diana. Not Knowing: The art of turning uncertainty into opportunity
Eoyang, Glenda and Halliday, Royce. Adaptive Action.
Fierro, Rita S, Schwartz, Alyssa and Smart Dawn H. (eds.) Evaluation and Facilitation
Friere, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Hamilton, Marilyn. Integral City.
Holman, Peggy. Engaging Emergence.
Juarrero, Alicia. Dynamics in Action: Intentional behaviour as a complex system.
Johnson, Steven. Emergence.
Kay, John. Obliquity.
Meadows, Donella. Thinking in Systems
Mindell, Arnold. Sitting in the Fire
Moore Alan. No Straight Lines: Making sense of our non-linear world.
Quinn Patton, Michael. Developmental Evaluation
Quinn Patton, Michael. Principles Focussed Evaluation.
Quinn Patton, M., McKegg, K., and Wehipeihana, N. Developmental Evaluation Exemplars
Scharmer, Otto. Theory U
Scharmer, Otto. Leading from the Emerging Future.
Wheatley, Margaret and Frieze, Deborah. Walk Out, Walk On.
Wilson, Shawn. Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods
Ways of seeing, practice and knowing
Atleo, Richard (Umeek). Tsawalk: A Nuu-Chah-Nulth Worldview
Atleo, Richard (Umeek). Principles of Tsawalk.
Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life
Chodron, Pema. Comfortable with uncertainty.
Jaworski, J. Synchronicity
Johnson, Basil. Ojibway Ceremonies
Katie, Byron. Loving what is.
Kauffman, Stuart. At home in the universe.
Lao Tzu. Tao te Ching