The purpose of a school bus is to get children to school, safely and predictably. The purpose of facilitation is to enable people with different ideas and experiences to discover what they share and then to act on that discovery in concert. If the tangible artefact of the school bus \u2013 the bus \u2013 is expendable, can we dispense with the most tangible artefact of facilitation \u2013 the workshop? As we trade the front of the room for the front end of Zoom, we are just beginning to discover what we can and can\u2019t do without. Above all, when we move beyond \u2018presence\u2019 and escape the bounds of time and space (which is the greatest promise of virtual facilitation), what do we gain and what do we lose?<\/p>\n
Regardless of our pre-COVID experience of virtual facilitation, I think we have all been learning how much more we can get out of virtual events (and how much more we have to put into them!) than we ever imagined. Yet I keep thinking that, like a dog walking on his hind legs: he doesn\u2019t do it very well, but it\u2019s remarkable that he can do it at all. Quite simply, we are pleased with how well our virtual convenings are working because we had not expected them to work at all. Instead, we do get insights, but no breakthroughs; alignment, but no belief; participation, but precious little collaboration; a shared experience, but no magic. Like sexting, it can spice up an existing relationship but is certainly can\u2019t replace IRL.<\/p>\n
We are collaborating with a large consulting firm preparing for a major project. I asked them about adapting our approach for the coming weeks and months, when physical convenings will be out of the question. Their reply was, \u201cSo far, it seems we have been able to seamlessly pivot to complete virtual delivery of our work. The projects are going forward at the same pace with only a few exceptions.\u201d This suggests that the measure of success is pace. I think we should aim higher.<\/p>\n
If we don\u2019t lose \u2018pace\u2019 in a virtual event, what\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0we lose? What is missing from the experience and what is missing from the result? We have Zoom ice-breakers and energizers, intimate break-out groups, and instant-feedback voting, but the morphing mosaic of mug-shots and grey, named rectangles is as desolate as a ghost-town populated by the shades of our friends and colleagues. It is the difference between the casual energy and serendipity of strolling down a busy street and the desolation of waving to our masked neighbours from across a courtyard.<\/p>\n As for results, we know how to Zoom-facilitate a team towards something resembling consensus and even summon the energy to keep that consensus alive in the weeks following an event. (The jury is still out for long-term commitment.) But facilitating a solution to our client\u2019s challenge was always a pretence, a cover-story for our true vocation of changing people\u2019s lives, or at least their jobs, in the matter of a few long days.<\/p>\n I have just come off a de-brief call with a client for whom my team facilitated a virtual retreat last week. The retreat was meant to be a three-day face-to-face alignment and planning exercise. We translated it into three half-day Zoom sessions facilitated by our team of three. The client is over the moon and I am beaming with pride for my team. The client even used the word \u2018magic\u2019 to describe the impact on the other participants.<\/p>\n Making use of what Zoom\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0do, we can supplement our face-to-face work, stretching out the interactions before and after an in-person event to supplement the engagement. We can mix our brief, highly-intense interactions with frequent, lower-intensity learning, building, comparing, tracking and sensemaking. We can flatten the interactive curve \u2013 extending it in time while maintaining a few peaks of deeply-collaborative work with everyone in the same place at the same time.<\/p>\n So what am I worried about? We can do effective work in a virtual space. We can achieve tangible results. But I only have to look at a photo of an event conducted with\u00a0presence<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 at the same time and in the same space \u2013 to remember the importance of focus, of physical proximity, of the attention we pay to each other, of the control we graciously relinquish when we step into the same room as other people without the option of switching off our camera, of the energy we create when we all want to speak at once \u2013 and do!<\/p>\n And what about the relationships we create while sharing an experience? On-line meetings can sustain\u00a0existing<\/em>\u00a0relationships; creating new, meaningful ones on Zoom is another matter.<\/p>\n This photo was taken 62 days ago in my now-shuttered office in Rome. A relic from a bygone age depicting a scene that is unthinkable today.<\/p>\n The first definition of \u2018virtually\u2019 is \u2018almost\u2019. If we\u2019re \u2018virtually there\u2019 it means that we\u2019re not there yet. The Piedibus works fine without a bus because the children are together \u2013 at the same time and in the same place. Presence can be simulated on-line, but it can\u2019t be replaced. Once in a while, we too need to be together at the same time and at the same place.<\/p>\n – Dan Newman,\u00a0Matter Group<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n