How to Make Collaboration Work: Powerful Ways to Build Consensus, Solve Problems, and Make Decisions

Collaboration is an everyday practice that many people find to be a frustrating, even exhausting, experience. How to Make Collaboration Work provides a remedy: five principles of collaboration that have been tested and refined in organizations throughout the world. Author David Straus shows that these methods can help any group make better decisions and function more effectively. The five principles are: Involve the Relevant Stakeholders, Build Consensus Phase by Phase, Design a Process Map, Designate a Process Facilitator, and Harness the Power of Group Memory. Each principle addresses the specific challenges people face when trying to work collaboratively, and each can be applied to any problem-solving scenario.

The coauthor of "How to Make Meetings Work" offers five time-tested principles for making collaborative efforts more effective, efficient, and even enjoyable.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

David Straus, an innovator of group problem solving, has developed five proven principles of collaboration for almost every situation. Throughout How to Make Collaboration Work, he demonstrates how these principles have worked for big businesses, such as Ford Motor Co. and Kaiser Permanente, as well as public schools and governments. Straus helps to turns collaboration into a positive experience that benefits everyone involved. Copyright (c) 2003 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Straus is the founder of Interaction Associates, Inc. He has served in every major leadership position, including President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board.

Layton is the President of the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation.