Breaking Through Constraints (SSIR)

Complex facilitation An approach to facilitation designed to encourage emergence and allow for diversity. In contrast, more traditional rules of facilitation create planned activities with no variability in mind. In complex facilitation, we disrupt regular group dynamics, and facilitate through encouraging emergence and flow.

people in our organization started to feel like they now knew “Karen,” that once-faceless young analyst in a distant corner of the fight whom few had previously heard of, let alone actually met. When complex problems arose that might require Karen’s expertise, someone in another pocket of the organization could feel confident reaching out to her ac

helps us come to terms with the ways in which, by pushing hard to overcome the constraints on our lives, we make the effects of those constraints even worse than they otherwise would be.

But as you move toward the more intangible elements, such as people’s deep-seated attitudes and beliefs, your leverage for effective change increases. You come closer to looking at the underlying reasons why the rules, physical structure, and work processes take their current form.

Marginalized contributors. Rigidly cascaded systems tend to shut out input from frontline employees. In a top-down ecosystem, contributors will hesitate to share goal-related concerns or promising ideas. • One-dimensional linkages. While cascading locks in vertical alignment, it’s less effective in connecting peers horizontally, across departmental