The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups

Transition Town group involved in preparations for peak oil and climate change; an intentional community, founded with the highest ideals; a non-profit dedicated to social change -- millions of such voluntary groups exist around the world. These collaborative organisations have the unique potential to harness their members' ideals, passions, skills, and knowledge -- if they can succeed in getting along together. This is a comprehensive guide for groups seeking to organise with shared power and bottom-up leadership to foster vision, trust, accountability and responsibility. This desperately needed toolkit provides keys to: understanding group dynamics; facilitating communication and collective decision-making; dealing effectively with difficult people. Drawing on four decades of experience, Starhawk shows how collaborative groups can generate the co-operation, efficacy and commitment critical to success. Her extensive exploration of group process is woven together with the story of RootBound -- a fictional ecovillage mired in conflict -- and rounded out with a series of real-life case studies. The included exercises and facilitators toolbox show how to establish the necessary structures, ground rules and healthy norms. This is required reading for anyone who wants to help their group avoid disagreement and disillusionment and become a wellspring of creativity and innovation.