The Edge of Reason: Beyond AI

"The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver."
— John Naisbitt, 1929-2021

The Landscape

In an era where generative AI can draft agendas, summarize meetings, and suggest backlog refinements with terrifying speed, it is easy to mistake data processing for true leadership. However, the essence of expert facilitation lies in the messy, unprogrammable reality of human emotion, power dynamics, and collective intuition-territory where an algorithm simply cannot tread.

Far from being a mere digital substitute for in-person workshops, online facilitation has emerged as a complex medium of its own, demanding a level of psychological depth and nuance that most team leads have yet to realize. It is not about the technical mastery of Miro or Mural boards; it is about the ability to sense a shift in the "virtual room," to hold space for productive silence, and to navigate the subtle interpersonal tensions that AI is fundamentally blind to.

To master this landscape is to move beyond the mechanical and into the art of human connection, leveraging a digital canvas to create breakthroughs that no machine could ever replicate.*

Intent

The Edge of Reason offers managers, coaches and other leaders the opp­ortunity to learn and hone their own online facilitation skills, while improving the discipline across the digital world, ben­efitting individuals, teams and whole organisations.

Seasoned peers and newcomers alike will spend the day exchanging ideas and exper­iences in an open, emergent forum, so that the discipline of facilitation can prop­agate and thrive, waking us up to our full potential.

Implementation

This is not a conference. There are no tracks, no keynotes, no superstars, no leaders, no pre-defined learning outcomes, and no product promotion or sponsorship. This is, after all, the edge of reason, so expect the unreasonable.

The space is lightly held by a host who will welcome participants and maintain the framework for the day. The program is created on the fly, by whoever is there. Everyone is an equal participant and can choose to do as much or as little as they like. This event attracts many skilled and experienced facilitators, keen to share their discoveries of online facilitation gleaned over the past 5+ years. You are welcome to show up with unreasonable expectations, but bring also an open heart and an open mind.

Reflection

Periods of reflection will occur throughout the day to share learnings, adjust the agenda, raise (and resolve) concerns, assess value and find ways to improve on the fly. Participants take responsibility to meet their own needs and to serve the group as a whole.

Learning Outcomes

"Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through–" She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist. In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. — Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll, 1871

In a somewhat unorthodox, but not altogether unreasonable way, this passage describes what you might experience at this event: if you believe an outcome to be possible, perhaps you can speak it into existence. This is about as close as you'll get to a learning outcome from us, because what you learn is almost entirely up to you.

Logistics

The event runs from 10 am to 5 pm, UK time. You are encouraged to attend the full event, but will be equally welcomed if you arrive late or leave early.

This event is strictly limited to 24 participants.

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* Note: 'The Landscape' section was written by Gemini from reading this page and receiving a single, short, vague prompt. Generative AI is amazing for supporting this kind of solo creativity. But let's be careful we don't assume it can take the place of human-to-human collaboration and discovery. It really cannot. We still need each other.