Where to stand
Isn’t it great to be back in real rooms with people? The novelty should have worn off by now, but every time I make it into a room, I’m grateful.
As I check out rooms before a gathering, I’m struck by the possibilities in a way that I may have overlooked pre-covid.
Being back in a room is a little bit like coming home after a holiday. You see the familiar in a new light. Home hasn’t changed – just your perspective. You see a whole range of possibilities and might even start to move furniture around. After you’ve unpacked, of course.
Back to the room for our workshop or meeting. There are so many elements to how a room is set up and how it works on the day.
Empty space. Wall space. Outside space and access to it. And don’t forget the entry.
The furniture. Is it fixed or flexible? Joy if the latter 😂. How easy is it to move chairs and tables, quickly? Where’s the best spot for catering? For people to dump their coats and bags? Audio-visual equipment. And the list goes on.
But today I’m wondering about one of the most easily moveable elements – the facilitator.
I’ve been talking about where participants sit - how moving seats can shift attitudes and behaviour and the results from a meeting.
How about the facilitator or leader of the meeting? Where do we place ourselves? Sitting or standing.
Let’s start with assumptions. How many times have you turned up to workshop venue to find a lectern for the facilitator, with a clicker on it to move through the slides?
I don’t know about you, but I’m not there to teach or lecture.
And I rarely use slides, unless people need to see a large image or poll results. If I need a clicker, it’s just fine in my pocket.
The lectern is always at the front of the room, with a group of empty chairs look towards the area, expectantly.
Move it and re-arrange the chairs and hey presto, the front of the room has disappeared. Now we’ve got something to play with.
Where I stand and sit depends on the purpose.
I might arrange a circle of chairs -with ample space between every pair for people to be able to move around easily, including one for myself. There’s no ‘front of the room’ in a circle.
If there’s room, I like to also have small groups of chairs or standing work stations set up for easy transition to deep, collaborative work, but it depends on the space.
I do my best to avoid set ups where there’s a clear ‘head of the table’ or front of the room.
Where I choose to move and stand depends on the stage of the workshop. I treat the room as a canvas, and move from around it, as we move through the work. This is also really helpful when we start to draw things together, physically walking back through the work we’ve done to see where we have landed.
As is often the case in my wonderings, I find inspiration in photography.
Ansel Adams, the American landscape photographer, said that, "A good photograph is knowing where to stand."
Shane Parrish cited Adams earlier this year in his newsletter. He highlighted that:
“You can easily double the quality of your photographs by spending a bit of time thinking about where to stand….this idea is useful in other domains too. You can improve the quality of your writing by thinking of how to position it for the reader.”
To this I’d add that you can change yours and your participants perspective by thinking of where you stand when facilitating.
As Parrish notes, “Investing a little time where others don't doubles your impact.”
Photo: Fern Millen Photography
I’d love to hear if you think consciously about where you stand when leading gatherings. Just reply to this email and let me know.
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