Recently Kristen (from Coko) and I were discussing facilitation styles and she made an interesting observation about some techniques I use. Essentially Kristen noted that I use devices to ‘give away’ power (my summation, I can’t remember her exact words).
I can see what she means – essentially, when facilitating you have a lot of power over the group. There are many things you can do with this power, you can wield it as if you are the expert on all things (which is what being an asshole is all about), you can use it in an exceedingly benevolent and generous manner (which is how I think master facilitator Gunner from Aspiration operates), or you can do what I do, which is to use humility and self-deprecating actions to share some of the power with the group… there are probably many more modes of course.
I think there is something to this, although I’ll need to think through it more.