An Essential Guide
for Making
Good Group Decisions
By Craig Freshley
With tips, principles, examples, and stories, Craig Freshley shares the essentials that groups need to make decisions that provide lasting benefits. Practical and authoritative, this friendly guide from a veteran group facilitator is a must-have for those seeking proven techniques for collaborative decision-making.
Board members and senior staff in the nonprofit sector―where there’s often a high expectation of collaboration―and corporate leaders who have a collaborative, inclusive mindset or culture, will find this book particularly valuable.
Freshley’s message is especially pertinent to today’s world: It’s through collaboration, not competition, that groups of the future will create, innovate, and thrive. It is collaboration, not competition that will save us from extinction.
Further, collaborative decision making is a skill that can be successfully learned and practiced. Freshley shows groups how.
Together We Decide was a Kirkus Best Book of 2023 and popular in airport bookstores across the country.
Topics include:
• Efficient and productive meetings
• Attitudes that help and hinder group productivity
• Group decision making steps: from idea to decision to action
• The supremacy of group culture
• How to listen well and speak with purpose
• Conflict prevention, management, and resolution
• When to apply which type of decision-making method
• Meeting facilitation theory and techniques
I hope it’s easy and fun for you to buy Together We Decide through your local book store.
If that doesn’t work for you, buy it here at Porchlight Books. Discounts available.
Please reach out if you would like to buy multiple copies from us directly and explore additional discounts.
Fans getting value from Together We Decide
Fan mail
This book has shifted the lens I use when other people have input. Each of us has a piece of the truth, and we make our best decisions when we put our pieces together. I don’t just want to remember that. I want to live it, mentor it, and bring it into how I work with people and relationships more generally.
That’s a pretty significant impact for a book to have.
I loved how practical it was. Your description of facilitation as helping a group achieve its objectives particularly landed with me. It put words around something I’ve realized I really love doing and want to become much more intentional about.
Thank you for being so generous with your time and your thinking. This will definitely be one of those books I keep coming back to and recommending to others.
– Kelly Picket, September 25, 2026
This book reflects the type of person I want to be!
– Elaine Vandale, October 8, 2026
Reviews
Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2023 in Nonfiction
“It’s packed with a wealth of inspiring ideas and practical information, taking readers step by step through methods to create good decisions, including five critical attitudes, specific practices and procedures, and ways to surmount disagreements……..A thorough and friendly guide to why group decisions matter.”
Foreward Reviews
“………an insightful social science book that balances practical and ideological advice for successful group decision-making……an inspiring foundation for collaborative leadership in business and beyond.”
BookLife by Publishers Weekly
“…… a practical-minded guidebook for what it takes to find success in teams, boards, organizations, and other groups, public and private. …..not just for leaders and managers, but for any individual who has a desire to contribute positively to their group, community, or team.”
Joe Wisinski for Readers’ Favorite
“I serve in leadership positions in several organizations, and I found Together We Decide invaluable……The book is well-written, insightful, and, above all, practical. It’s extremely thorough and seems to address every potential problem situation. Anyone who is a member of any group should read Freshley’s book.”
What do YOU think about Together We Decide?
Give your feedback here. Really. I would be honored to hear what you think of the book.
The Wisdom of Group Decisions
Did you know Craig has written another book called The Wisdom of Group Decisions?
