The Deep Skill of Facilitating for Emergence (And Why It Matters Now More Than Ever)
A fractal (or swirling) pattern emerging from chaos
Facilitating for emergence is a skill I’ve long valued. I recently joined a course on participatory facilitation, and like many real-world processes of emergence, it didn’t start smoothly. Technical glitches, platform issues, people dropping in and out. And yet, even in the messiness, something meaningful surfaced.
Because this is the work.
Facilitating for emergence isn’t about perfection or control. It’s about creating the conditions where something deeper can unfold—even (especially) when things feel messy. It requires deep listening, trust in the process, and a willingness to stay in the unknown long enough for insight to arise.
This work keeps me humble and at my growth edge.
The Opposite of Participatory Facilitation
Contrast this with the recent Oval Office meeting between Zelensky, Trump, and J.D. Vance—an interaction that quickly became a global case study in coherence breakdown.
Participatory facilitation is about power with rather than power over. It cultivates mutuality, attunement, and trust. What we witnessed in that Oval Office meeting was the antithesis of this—posturing, dominance, and a fundamental lack of relational presence.
It’s not just that the meeting was tense. It’s that it was designed to be a performance rather than a dialog.
When facilitation is missing—or worse, when the person in power actively suppresses participation—the result is fragmentation, manipulation, and ultimately, a failure to generate new possibilities.
Why This Matters (Far Beyond Politics)
We often think of facilitation as a soft skill, but in reality, it’s a power skill—one that determines whether people can come together to think, create, and problem-solve in meaningful ways.
It’s the difference between:
✅ A meeting that sparks insight vs. one that drains energy
✅ A team that moves forward together vs. one stuck in silos
✅ A leader who empowers others vs. one who dominates the room
In an era of increasing polarization (whether in politics, business, or online discourse), participatory facilitation is more than just a leadership skill. It’s an antidote to fragmentation.
The Humility of Holding Space for the Unknown
Facilitating for emergence requires a different kind of expertise. It’s not about having all the answers—it’s about knowing how to hold the space where insights can arise.
It’s about:
Staying present even when things feel chaotic
Trusting the wisdom of the group instead of controlling the outcome
Listening beyond words—attuning to energy, patterns, and what’s unspoken
This is why coaching and facilitation are more essential than ever. AI can process information, but it can’t hold space for transformation. And as leaders, we need more than just intelligence—we need coherence, attunement, and the ability to create containers for real change.
I’m in the early stages of deepening this skill, and I can already feel how it’s reshaping my perspective on leadership and group dynamics. True facilitation is an art—one that I’m grateful to be learning, even when it pushes me outside my comfort zone.
What Happens When We Get This Right?
Imagine a world where our leaders knew how to hold space for meaningful conversations.
Where meetings weren’t power plays, but opportunities for real collaboration and wisdom to emerge.
Where facilitation was recognized as the core leadership skill that it is.
That’s the future I want to contribute to.
And it starts with all of us—learning how to create spaces where real dialog, insight, and transformation can happen.