The 7 Best Books For Facilitators

➡️ If you want a more compact version of our learnings from all these books and our own experience, then check out our FREE FACILITATOR TRAINING:

These are our 7 favourite books about facilitation and workshopping (in no particular order 😉).
They are packed with facilitation techniques and frameworks, workshop exercises and workshop recipes and design thinking principles. In other words, everything you'd need to facilitate any workshop or session confidently.

In this video AJ&Smart CEO and Workshop Facilitator, Jonathan Courtney, shares a list of what we consider the best books for facilitators. These 7 books have had a great influence in the way we facilitate our own workshops and we hope they can help you in your own facilitation career.

🤔 Have you read any of these books? What's your favourite facilitation and workshopping book? Share your answer in the comments below 👇

⏰ Video timestamps:

0:00 Intro
0:44 Book 1 - Visual Thinking
1:38 Book 2 - Creative Confidence
2:28 Book 3 - The Workshopper Playbook
3:09 Book 4 - Gamestorming
4:02 Book 5 - Sprint
5:07 Book 6 - The Surprising Power Of Liberating Structures
6:25 Book 7 - The Secrets Of Facilitation
9:21 The rotten paint story

📚 Links to the books mentioned in the video:

1️⃣ Visual Thinking by Willemien Brand

2️⃣ Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley, David M. Kelley

3️⃣ The Workshopper Playbook by Jonathan Courtney

4️⃣ Gamestorming by James Macanufo, Sunni Brown, Dave Gray

5️⃣ Sprint by Jake Knapp

6️⃣ The Surprising Power Of Liberating Structures by Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless

7️⃣ The Secrets Of Facilitation by Michael Wilkinson

Thanks for watching!

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#Facilitation #Workshops #AJSmart

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The 7 Best Books For Facilitators (2022)

[AJSmart]

🤔 Have you read any of these books? What's your favourite facilitation and workshopping book? Share your answer in the comments below 👇
➡️ And if you want a more compact version of our learnings, then check out our FREE training and find out how to become a high-paid facilitator:

[guzaraya]

Great list you have there! Other interesting reads I could suggest: Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making and The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation.

[shamsbt]

Thanks for the recommendation!! Definitely learning a lot from your facilitation videos as an outdoor educator

[JohnElbing]

I loved "The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time" by Rob Fitzpatrick

[VIDEOGRAFIKO]

Thank you for sharing your favorite books on facilitation. I was currently I. The market for some and this helped me. I already read sprint and workshopped playbook.

[ilichat]

Thank you for the good work. Very nice collection of books!
Worst Smell: Durian fruit (also somebody's feet, but you wouldn't know🤣)
Best Book until now: Sprint! by Jake Knaap

[raianrazal]

Need recs where to start. Total beginner

[nickfifield]

Agile coach here.... Reading your book. Lots of useful info, I see you using the good old Sailboard retro for collection :)
So.... the book appears to be focused on a co-located workshop. What about remote teams? In the post covid times, many, many teams (especially in the software space) are remote. I've notice a lack of material in dealing with remote teams.... i know why.... it's hard! :) Do you have another book in the pipeline?

[SKDurgesh]

Very Nice Collection of books Thanks @Jonathan

[nsyll]

"How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk '' Ok don't laugh but parenting books like this really help me to run workshops. Techniques such as, how to listen you kids (so they will talk) and how to guide them to find their solutions and NOT just drop a solution for them there are essential for a workshoper

[lifefeaturingme]

I have "The Secrets of Facilitation" a great book.

[DavideTarasconi]

I would add "Good Talk" by Daniel Stillman and "The Ten-Minute Trainer" by Sharon Bowman (yes, it's about training but there are 150 activities that can be helpful in workshop settings too, just like Liberating Structures).

[Nathan-tftk]

Facilitator is actually good job, but I prefer something else so um yeah...but this helps so thanks

[kareycovey]

I also think designing your workshop experience is important. Check out "We've Got to Start Meeting Like This" by Dana Wright. It has inspired me to create engaging workshops by intentionally designing the engagement before, during and after your meetings/workshops. Love all your stuff and thank you for your generosity with all the free stuff. You are a start. Worst smell: by bulldog's farts hahaha

[zacheisey]

Sprint was definitely a game-changer for me, but I'm happy to have some new books mentioned here to add to my reading list. Worst smell ever has to be rotting, maggot-invested hamburger meat that was mistakenly left underneath a wetsuit at a barbeque I was hosting. We didn't find it for like a week 🤢🤮

[claudiaspinelli]

Ok, 5' ago I bought Visual Thinking, I was looking for something like this book! I'm 100% visual person. I also see images in my brain when I'm working. That book is me 😂😂💕 Thanks!
I'm back and looking forward for my Masterclass. I'll be asking soon about it ... I guess!

[ma_zyc]

what do you guys think about "Facilitating with Ease" by Ingrid Bens as a starter?

[cillboon]

I'll be honest. I don't think I've read a book that's made me go wow. Maybe I'm difficult. Gen X talking. I did Liberating Structures a few years ago and bought the book as a reference. It is not a fun read but the detail on the exercises is great. You can also get it all on the website, if you don't want to buy the book. Gamestorming has probably saved me more times than I can count. I also like the simplicity of the Training from the Back of the Room or TBR. As for smells, I would have to say a visit to a veterinarian hospital for sick animals. It was so bad I had to go outside and get some air.

[nickfifield]

Which books are best for facilitation with REMOTE teams?

[PatriciaMasioni]

During the whole video I was just trying to figure out if you’re growing your hair in a man bun or not… then you dropped your mic and finally turn your head