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"Cruikshank, Jeffrey L."
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Breaking Robert's rules : the new way to run your meeting, build consensus, and get results
Every day in communities across America hundreds of committees, boards, church groups, and social clubs hold meetings where they spend their time engaged in shouting matches and acrimonious debate. Whether they are aware of it or not, the procedures that most such groups rely on to reach decisions were first laid out as Robert's Rules more than 150 years ago by an officer in the U.S. Army's Corps of Engineers. Its arcane rituals of parliamentary procedure and majority rule usually produce a victorious majority and a very dissatisfied minority that expects to raise its concerns, again, at the next possible meeting. Breaking Robert's Rules clearly spells out how any group can work together effectively. After briefly explaining the problems created by Robert's Rules, the guide outlines the five key steps toward consensus building, and addresses the specific problems that often get in the way of a group's progress. Appendices include a basic one page \"Handy Guide\" that can be distributed at meetings and a case study demonstrating how the ideas presented in the book can also be applied in a corporate context. Written in a non-technical and engaging style, and containing clear ideas and instructions that anyone can understand and use, this one-of-a-kind guide will prove an essential tool for any group desperate to find ways of making their meetings more effective. In addition, neighborhood associations, ad hoc committees, social clubs, and other informal groups lacking a clear hierarchy will find solid advice on how to move forward without resorting to \"majority rules\" or bickering over who will take leadership positions. Bound to become a classic, Breaking Robert's Rules will change the way you hold meetings forever, paving the way for efficiency, efficacy, and peaceful decision making.
eBook
Juicing demand for an obscure fruit
By teaching consumers how to squeeze juice from oranges, and by providing different kinds of juicers for that purpose, Lasker created a new use for oranges that increased the fruit's consumption per serving in the United States from half an orange to between two and three oranges.
Newspaper Article
How they sell you what you don't understand
Consider Moore's Law - the famous principle of computing that states that the density of transistors on integrated circuits doubles every two years, thereby making all kinds of technological advances possible. According to a study released in September by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, the iPad had the highest consumer-satisfaction scores ever recorded.
Newspaper Article
Facilitating Group Problem Solving
CBA involves not only a set of tools and techniques (like assessment and facilitation) but also a commitment to joint problem solving. Members of any organization or community are not likely to view a joint problem-solving effort as legitimate, however, unless they understand exactly who is meeting, and how well they have handled their assignments. Thus, the legitimacy of any consensus-building effort hinges in large part on the way the process is perceived by those likely to be affected by what is decided.
Book Chapter
Confirming that Agreement Has Been Reached
Up to this point, most of what we’ve been describing, both in general terms and in our Blaine example, has been about how to create value through deliberation. The members of the Blaine Bicentennial Committee, for example, have built upon each other’s interests to create options that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. They have finished the difficult step of coming up with a package, and they are on the verge of deciding on a final version of that package, based on what they hear back from their respective constituencies. So is their work complete? In a word, no. Creating value is only one aspect of consensus building. Equally important is the process of distributing value. The consensus builders have planted an orchard, and it is now bearing fruit. If they have done their job well, they already have a good idea of how the fruit will be divvied up among the known constituencies.
Book Chapter
Overcoming the Barriers to CBA
Consensus building can get you to far better solutions than Robert’s Rules. CBA is often the best way to generate an agreement that is fairer, more efficient, wiser, and more stable than would otherwise be possible. That begs an obvious question: if CBA is such a superior approach, why isn’t the whole world doing it? There are several reasons: General Robert had a serious head start. Robert’s Rules became widely available in the late nineteenth century. Consensus building (as we practice it today) is only a few decades old. Robert’s Rules are the “law.” This is an outgrowth of the previous point. As noted in chapter 1, a wide range of institutions, public and private, have articles of incorporation or bylaws that specifically call for the use of Robert’s Rules. Our strong sense is that for many of these groups, parliamentary procedure is no longer the most appropriate approach, if it ever was. Think about it: Robert’s Rules and the telegraph were invented at the same time. When a better alternative (the telephone) became available, the telegraph slowly withered away.
Book Chapter
The Importance of Facilitation
As we’ve described in previous chapters, CBA requires careful preparation. That means identifying the right people, assessing the problem accurately, thinking through a work plan and budget, setting up at least a preliminary set of ground rules so that people can start to work together at the table, and then getting the right people to join the effort. Once they’re at the table, roles and responsibilities must be assigned. But this is all “table-setting,” in a sense, for the problem-solving process that is to follow. How do people start talking in a way that builds consensus on a solution, or an agreement? Every consensus-building process is different. Working backward from a number of very successful deliberations, in a broad range of contexts, we can identify eight features of successful consensus-building deliberations. Those eight features (illustrated by a couple of visits to our friends in Blaine) constitute the heart of this chapter. First, let’s look at the tone that should dominate your deliberations—and the mind-set that gives rise to that tone.
Book Chapter