Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation Using Conflict and Diversity,   ISBN:9781887078009

Customer Rating: 

I borrowed this book from a friend, because it seemed, at a glance, that it might give some insight about how to find a constructive path through a conflictual situation, without rejecting that conflict.

I think the book delivers on this some. Indeed, some of the points in the final chapters were quite enticing to me.

Unfortuantely, the author and I have profoundly different personal cultures (for lack of a better word). In this book, Mr. Mindell sees the world mainly through power/oppression relationships and group distinctions (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, etc), and while I don't dispute that those exist, I don't see them as centrally as the author does. As a result, many of the ways he describes situations focus almost exclusively on (say) how members of one race group felt oppressed by those of another, or one gender by another or the like. I suspect that if you do see the world this way, you'll find this book has many good things to say to you. Since I don't, it didn't.

Aside from this, perhaps the biggest problem I, personally, found with this book is that it tends to tell me THAT things happened in various workshops rather than SHOWING me it happen, so there seemed little I could learn. In part, this may be an inevitable byproduct of the written medium, for I believe part of the author's fundamental approach is to react to the emotion of the moment. Without at least a video recording of an event, you're not going to be able to sense that moment, and what ends up on the written page is "dead" by comparision.

I did like the reminders that helping a group find they have shared interests, or moving people away from thinking towards feeling can be helpful. I also liked the notion of the various role playing activities that were mentioned in the book.

Customer Rating: 

We read this book as part of our readings in the LIOS program. The book grabbed by and kept me engaged all through it.
It is an earlier work, but I feel it is probably one of the most engaging books on group transformation that I have ever read. I'll be reading more of his work.

Customer Rating: 

Is your group breaking apart from internal conflict? You need to sit in the fire. Don't let them get away with playing the innocent victim of the wicked other side. Make them keep talking until they learn from each other. Power politics will just add to the spiral of violence, throw gas on the fire. But your sitting in the fire can facilitate bringing the community together.

The author says "... we want to insist on peaceful behavior: line up here, single file. ....." "But the world is not composed of docile little groups" "... engaging in heated conflict instead of running away from it is one of the best ways to resolve the divisiveness that prevails on every level of society - in personal relationships, business and the world."

Are you concerned about global trends? Do you want people to learn to share this earth? You need this book to guide you. Jump in and lead a deep democratic process. Be a midwife at the birth of our sustainable global community.

"Severe conflict can threaten to separate or be facilitated to bring a community together." "If violence is admitted and addressed, it is less destructive than if it is repressed. Going consciously into battle is an intense experience, but one that revitalizes everyone. You are renewed in hope. You find not only solutions to issues, but something more precious. You find that a battle does not mean the end of the world, but the beginning of the river called community."