Looking to fill your bookshelf (or e-reader) with essential texts on facilitation and workshop design? This is the place to be!
Here at SessionLab, we’ve surveyed over a thousand facilitators, trainers, and leaders to uncover their top go-to facilitation books. Read on to find the 11 recommendations not to be missed!
Reading facilitation books will help you understand the deeper roots of the role, give you a bedrock of activities and tools and of course, if you are purchasing these as actual books and putting them on a shelf, will also provide you with a lovely and appropriate background for all your video calls.
Why facilitation books matter
Facilitation is an ever-evolving profession, quick to react and adapt to changes in society. A generous, global network of practitioners offers constant opportunities to refresh knowledge and build new skills through online resources, training courses, and community events. If free downloadable guides are what you are looking for, we’ve compiled a blog post with online resources for you to peruse.
All those free resources should have you covered when it comes to learning new tools and adapting to change. At the same time, there are certain truths about group dynamics and how to harness collective intelligence and lead effective collaboration that are not likely to change anytime soon. To learn about the foundations of facilitation and the frameworks and theories of group dynamics, there is some essential reading any group facilitator should do.
Experienced authors have labored years to collect these hard-learned lessons about what makes or breaks effective workshops and how to create meaningful experiences. Reading their practical tips and theoretical frameworks sooner rather than later will save you a lot of pain. It will also help you answer key questions about how and why facilitated activities work and, ultimately, make your practice better.
Recommended books for learning about facilitation and group dynamics
When it comes to becoming a skilled facilitator, learning from the best books in the field is a great way to deepen your knowledge. The following books are recommended by facilitators around the world. Each of them offers insights on how to craft life changing workshops, deliver great meetings, and unleash your group’s creative potential.
Here are our top 11 tips for learning about facilitation and group dynamics:
To select these top books we’ve trusted not one, not two, but over a thousand facilitators who responded to the State of Facilitation survey recommending their favorite reads. For more tips on top resources, check out the latest edition of the State of Facilitation report!
Inspiring reads on hosting meaningful connections
Facilitation isn’t just about managing a meeting—it’s about creating conditions favorable to connection and purpose. The following books will inspire you to host gatherings that leave a lasting impact, whether in personal or professional settings.
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
Hosting meaningful gatherings feels ever more important, as a means to counteract isolation in our personal lives and polarisation in society. Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering teaches that hosting events is all about creating an experience conducive to genuine connection. From family reunions to corporate meetings, Priya Parker emphasizes the importance of intentional design and thoughtful planning.
I recently joined a facilitation case study class in which the speaker told us about a challenging multistakeholder workshop he had hosted. Inspired by this book, he actually started activities the evening before the formal start of the event. Attendees were invited to a dinner, in which they were called to share personal stories about their professional experience in the field. This led to an increased sense of trust, respect and mutual understanding which made all later negotiations much easier.
One of the standout lessons from this book is how to create a sense of belonging in your events. Through case studies and personal stories, Priya Parker illustrates that gatherings, even in everyday life, have the power to create transformative experiences for all participants.
As someone who finds it much easier to say “yes” than “no”, I found the chapter on how to craft an invitation that is clear about who should be, and who should not be, included, particularly challenging (and enlightening).
This book is a must-read for anyone who hosts groups and wants to bring more purpose and meaning into the mix.
Facilitating Breakthrough by Adam Kahane
Do you foresee upcoming high stakes situations in your practice? Would you appreciate some guidance on what to do when tensions are thick? In that case, Adam Kahane’s Facilitating Breakthrough is the book you want on your bedside table. This book shares real-world stories about navigating the most challenging of group dynamics—situations where success feels far from guaranteed.
From boardroom conflicts to international peace negotiations, Kahane draws from his extensive experience to demonstrate how a facilitator can help groups move forward when they’re blocked.
The very first chapter of the book is the one that sticks in my mind the most. Kahane tells the story of a once-in-a-generation meeting of parties in conflict in Colombia, where he learns that the job of a facilitator can be described as “removing obstacles to collaboration”. This idea of being a “remover of obstacles” has stayed with me since.
If you enjoy this book, you should know that Kahane has a lot of other great titles in his back catalogue, and his new work on Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems is scheduled for publication in 2025.
Most people want to connect, but there are structures that separate or exclude them. The consequences of these obstacles are estrangement and weakened communication, linkages, and relationships. Transformative facilitation focuses on dismantling these structures and thereby enabling connection.
Adam Kahane, Facilitating Breakthrough
Treasure troves of practical techniques
The two texts above are inspiring, non-fiction narratives, and while you can gather a lot of great ideas from them, you’ll also want to check out a few books that can help you with practical advice and methodologies. The following texts are packed with hands-on activities and techniques that can be applied immediately to your facilitation practice, helping you boost creativity, participation, and problem-solving within groups.
The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless
If there is one toolkit to rule them all, it’s Liberating Structures. This is a set of 33 micro-structures or activities you can use in isolation or string together to guide, and change, the way dialogue and engagement flow. Although you can read all available documentation concerning Liberating Structures on their website, you’ll probably want the book on your shelf to thumb through.
The Liberating Structures toolkit is versatile enough to be used in any context, from small teams to large conferences. These activities help groups tap into their collective intelligence and allow everyone to contribute. Whether you’re new to facilitation or a seasoned professional, this book is a practical guide and can be immediately applied to any group setting.
Pro tip: when creating your next session in SessionLab’s planner, you can go to the Library and directly drag-and-drop your favorite Liberating Structures method straight into your sessions, complete with notes and lists of materials. Give it a try!
Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo
Serious does not have to be the opposite of fun, as anyone involved in serious games well knows. Fun is, actually, one of the best ways to learn. Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo is a must-have for any facilitator looking to boost creativity and collaboration within a group. This highly visual book is a treasure trove of 80 activities and games designed to break down barriers and get people out of their comfort zones, sparking fresh ideas and solutions.
The subtitle says it all: Gamestorming is A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers. Each activity is carefully detailed (and whimsically illustrated) with a lot of guidance to help practitioners understand how and when to use games to encourage participants’ creativity, sense of adventure and open-mindness. Whether you’re facilitating agile teams or creative brainstorming sessions, this book will help bring energy and engagement to the room.
To enter into a game is to enter another kind of space, where the rules of ordinary life are temporarily suspended and replaced with the rules of the game. In effect, a game creates an alternative world, a model world.
Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo, Gamestorming
Essential manuals to have all the basics of facilitation crystal-clear
Understanding group dynamics and learning how to guide groups toward productive collaboration are key to becoming a master facilitator. The following books offer a comprehensive resource for facilitators who want to build strong foundations in their practice and create better meetings and workshops as a consequence.
A Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making by Sam Kaner
Can I just say I love this book? If you are considering buying one single text on facilitation, I’m going to say get your hands on a copy of this big, well-illustrated, practical and thorough workshop survival guide. Sam Kaner and co-authors Lenny Lind, Catering Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger: if you are reading this, top of the hat and thank you.
A Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making provides a robust framework for all your future designs. A common principle in workshop planning is “start with the end in mind”. In this book, the end is “agreeing upon a decision”, and the rest is a detailed, thoughtful step-by-step overview of how to get there.
When I teach facilitation, I often use handouts from Kaner’s book (which is full of illustrations and exceptionally handout-ready) to support discussions on decision making processes, on the divergence-emergence-convergence model, and more.
The Art of Facilitation by Dale Hunter
The updated edition of Dale Hunter’s classic The Art of Facilitation includes a study guide that works as a self-study “training program” and can be used by a group of aspiring facilitators as a peer learning framework. The Art of Facilitation moves from an in-depth look into group dynamics to covering applications in practice, including describing how facilitation works in organizations, sustainability, therapeutic group work, and a new section on the key elements of online meetings.
Clear, thorough and accessible, Dale Hunter’s book moves from definitions of what a facilitator is, and isn’t, all the way to giving practical cases of facilitation work in various fields. Dale Hunter also makes a strong case for why collaboration skills are growing in importance in our complex, interconnected world, and draws on the best available scientific research on leadership, group dynamics, and adult education.
This book is essential reading for facilitators who want to deepen their understanding of group processes and learn all about creating group synergy and managing group dynamics.
The Secrets of Facilitation by Michael Wilkinson
Here is another revised classic. The second edition of Wilkinson’s manual on Getting results with groups the SMART way (in this case, standing for “Structured Meeting and Relating Techniques”) is also expanded to include online facilitation. Michael Wilkinson also added sections on leading great meetings for cross-cultural teams, as well as designing for large groups and conferences.
Of all the texts listed here, The Secrets of Facilitation is probably the best bet for team leaders wanting to add some facilitation magic to their toolkit. The chapter on how to create an in-house community of practice in your company provides actionable advice that can really help create a company-wide culture of facilitation wherever you are.
Crafting excellent learning experiences
While there is a difference between facilitation and training, it’s nevertheless true that many facilitators are also trainers, and that methods and activities drawn from facilitation can make learning experiences more engaging.
Furthermore, it’s possible to make the argument that all facilitated sessions are learning sessions, since in order to bring change and increase collaboration, some form of learning must happen. The borders between learning design, experience design, and facilitation are blurred! With that in mind, here are two of facilitators’ favorite texts on how to design for learning.
Training from the Back of the Room by Sharon L. Bowman
Learning that is boring will never stick. Sharon Bowman’s Training from the Back of the Room is a field manual for how to design learning sessions that work. This book introduces brain-based techniques that help facilitators and trainers, as well as teachers, support participants in mastering new concepts and materials.
Bowman’s approach is designed to ensure that participants not only absorb the material but also retain it long after the session ends. The book includes 65 ways to step aside and support participants in taking ownership of their learning process, and includes ideas on how to make online learning interactive as well. For anyone who leads workshops or training sessions, this book offers a fresh perspective on how to teach more effectively.
When learners talk and teach, they learn.
Sharon Bowman, Training from the Back of the Room
Facilitating Group Learning by George Lakey
Whenever I am asked to design a new training, Facilitating Group Learning – Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners is the book I pick out of the shelf to keep at hand. The first chapters, in particular, serve me as a practical reminder of things that should always be included in learning design. I love this book because it combines very practical tips with theoretical frameworks drawing from psychology, sociology and pedagogy.
Lakey reminds readers of the importance of creating a container and fulfilling some practical needs in learners before they can fully absorb information. His book is full of very concrete examples and even direct quotes from real-world workshops that, if you’ve ever tried your hand at participatory training, you’ll probably recognize.
In order to learn, people need to feel safe. In a course or workshop or service learning project, they find safety by creating a social order of some kind.
George Lakey, Facilitating Group Learning
The book is a how-to manual for experiential learning, where learners are actively engaged in the process, rather than passively receiving information. Lakey’s methods are therefor particularly effective in workshops or educational settings where collaboration and dialogue are key.
Facilitation skills for social change
Facilitation goes beyond the meeting room. It plays a vital role in social movements and transformative change. The following books explore how facilitators can drive social change, lead with empathy, and guide groups to face, and even transform, complex societal issues.
A word of caution: all facilitation requires personal growth and self-awareness as a prerequisite, but social change work will put your belief systems to the test more than most! Expect rough waters, and a lot of growth and change!
Theory U by Otto Scharmer
In Theory U, Otto Scharmer presents a framework for leading profound social and organizational change. The book’s approach is centered around deep listening and co-creation, where facilitators help groups connect with their highest potential. Scharmer’s model is a great resource for facilitators working in change-driven environments or organizations undergoing transformation.
Facilitators who want to explore the deeper, transformative aspects of their work will find Theory U to be an essential resource. Drawing on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tradition of action research and learning by doing, Theory U has evolved over two decades of experimentation and refinement by a global community of practitioners. Going way beyond the book are the ULab courses, online yet experiential 6-week programs teaching systems thinking, innovation, and how to be a leader in change.
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
In Emergent Strategy – Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown explores how social movements can be facilitated through adaptive, flexible leadership. This book is a true original, unique in the landscape of facilitation books in the way it weaves together poetry, science-fiction, critical theory and personal stories to compose an inspiring call to action.
Emergent Strategy is deep, radical, and ends in a whole section of self-reflection journal, which is very much the kind of thing facilitators enjoy. An inspiring read for anyone involved in social justice movements.
Change happens. Change is definitely going to happen, no matter what we plan or expect or hope for or set in place. We will adapt to that change, or we will become irrelevant.
adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy
FAQs
What are the best books on facilitation?
We can’t really tell you the best, as it depends on your focus and interest. However, based on a global survey of facilitators, these are the top books not to be missed!
How can facilitation books help improve group dynamics and collaboration?
Facilitation books provide frameworks, techniques, and strategies to help facilitators lead groups effectively. Whether it’s navigating difficult conversations, building consensus, or fostering creativity, there’s a wealth of knowledge that can transform your group dynamics. To learn more about facilitation skills, you can also start by checking out our article here.
What facilitation techniques are covered in these books?
From participatory decision-making to using games and Liberating Structures, these books cover a wide range of facilitation techniques.
There are also certain methodologies that have deserved their own individual books. You may want to remix and customize methods to suit the needs of particular client, group or moment (as well as your own preferences) but it good professional practice to always acknowledge the people who created a method in the first place, and to know how it’s originally supposed to work.
Here are some study recommendations if you want to learn more about some specific methods:
- The World Café Book: Shaping our future through conversations that matter by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs with the World Café Community of Practice. This is a thorough manual for anyone interested in guiding World Café conversations, a powerful yet simple method designed to facilitate the emergence of collective intelligence.
- Open Space Technology: A user’s guide. The deceptively simple instructions for leading Open Space meetings and events can be found in many places throughout the web (including our own template in SessionLab, complete with printable posters!), but if you want to fully understand the rationale behind Harrison Owen’s wonderful contribution to the field, pick up this guide.
- Cynefin. Weaving sense-making into the fabric of our world. How can you tell if a problem is simple, complicated, complex, chaotic? And what do you do when faced with complexity? Dave Snowden’s work on Cynefin is a must-read for anyone working in uncertainty.
- The Change Handbook. This is the book of books, a 400+ page long encyclopedia of methods. If you want a comprehensive list of resources to thumb through and bookmark, repeatedly, throughout your career, give yourself a copy next holiday season!
Conclusion: your go-to facilitation reading list
These books are more than just recommendations—they’re tools you can use to transform how you think about facilitation, leadership strategies, and learning design. Whether you’re looking to improve group productivity, find practical tips for delivering workshops, or explore how facilitation can push for a more innovative culture, there’s something in this list for everyone.
So, which book will you pick up first? Whether you’re new to facilitation or a seasoned practitioner, each of these books offers valuable insights that can help take your skills to the next level.
For more ways to sharpen your facilitation skills, check out our facilitation courses and our step-by-step guide to planning workshops. Happy reading!
The post The top 11 most recommended facilitation books you’ll want to read first appeared on SessionLab.