Together We Decide: An Essential Guide for Making Good Group Decisions - Hardcover

by Craig Freshley (Author)

Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Books of 2023 in Nonfiction

Does your group need help making good decisions?

All groups--teams, boards, nonprofits, businesses, governments--must make decisions to make forward progress. In organizations large and small, simple and complex, public and private, people need to decide things together.

With tips, principles, examples, and stories, Craig Freshley shares the essentials that groups need to make decisions that provide lasting benefits. Practical and authoritative, this friendly guide from a veteran group facilitator is a must-have for those seeking proven techniques for collaborative decision-making.

Board members and senior staff in the nonprofit sector--where there's often a high expectation of collaboration--and corporate leaders who have a collaborative, inclusive mindset or culture, will find this book particularly valuable.

Freshley's message is especially pertinent to today's world: It's through collaboration, not competition, that groups of the future will create, innovate, and thrive. It is collaboration, not competition that will save us from extinction.

Further, collaborative decision making is a skill that can be successfully learned and practiced. Freshley shows groups how.

Topics include:

• Efficient and productive meetings
• Attitudes that help and hinder group productivity
• Group decision making steps: from idea to decision to action
• The supremacy of group culture
• How to listen well and speak with purpose
• Conflict prevention, management, and resolution
• When to apply which type of decision-making method
• Meeting facilitation theory and techniques

Author Biography

Craig Freshley is a professional meeting facilitator, speaker, and author with an inspiring attitude and a well-earned reputation for helping groups be efficient and productive.

He has professionally facilitated over 3,000 meetings and has helped countless groups make indispensable good decisions. Craig owns a small company called Good Group Decisions and works with a wide range of clients including nonprofits, governments, and businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.

Craig received the American Civic Collaboration Award in 2019 for creating and facilitating Make Shift Coffee Houses: places where Republicans, Democrats, and all kinds of people meet in-person to talk, hear live music, share food, and understand each other's political views.

Craig has a master's degree in Public Policy and Management from the Muskie School for Public Service, and two bachelor's degrees from the University of Maine. He has worked for the Maine State Planning Office, the Maine Development Foundation, and he helped start the Maine Downtown Center, Sustainable Maine, GrowSmart Maine, and other initiatives. Craig is a Quaker and has lived in a cohousing community for 25 years.