Standing in the Fire

In Standing in the Fire, Larry Dressler compares leading a combustible meeting with fighting a brush fire. When not tended to properly, a fire can cause suffering, proliferation, and destruction. However, the fire can also lead to illumination, cleansing, regeneration, and transformation.

High-heat meetings make everyone in the room uncomfortable, but this ‘fire’ is the catalyst that can inspire the creativity needed to solve the issues that brought participants together in the first place. Effective conveners handle the tension with a “way of being” which is engaged, open, authentic, relaxed, and grounded in purpose. Standing in the Fire offers a set of internal, self-directed principles and practices enabling the facilitator to remain calm and grounded while others feel hopeless, agitated, angry, and confused.