Most of us have been in meetings where the energy dips, conflict flares or the conversation goes nowhere. Conventional facilitation techniques often aim to smooth things out, keep people comfortable and move the agenda forward. That can be useful, but it often leaves the real work untouched.
Adaptive leadership offers a different way. Instead of protecting people from discomfort, it asks facilitators to hold groups in a productive zone of tension where learning, creativity and responsibility can grow. The goal isn’t efficiency or even consensus. It’s adaptive capacity – the ability of a group to face reality, wrestle with competing values and take ownership of the work only they can do.
The framework is often described as seven recurring “moves” that you can choose from:
- Get on the balcony
- Identify the adaptive challenge
- Regulate distress
- Maintain disciplined attention
- Give the work back to the people
- Protect voices of leadership from below
- Orchestrate conflict
1. Get on the Balcony
The balcony is a metaphor for perspective. Instead of getting lost on the dance floor, you step back to see the whole system – who’s engaged, who’s checked out, what alliances and resistances are forming.
Conventional approaches ignore the signals in the room: silence, energy shifts or the comfort of technical details. Adaptive facilitation treats these as data. On the balcony, the facilitator sees silence, energy and distraction not as inconveniences but as windows into the system’s learning edge.
When the group gets lost in technical details…
- Conventional move: “Great, lots of ideas here. Let’s capture them all and prioritize.”
- Adaptive move: “I notice we’ve gone deep into spreadsheets. Is that because it feels safer than naming what’s at risk if we really commit to decarbonization?”
When energy drops mid-meeting…
- Conventional move: “Let’s take a quick stretch.”
- Adaptive move: “The room feels flat. Is this fatigue…or did something just get said that shut us down?”
When the group falls silent…
- Conventional move: “Okay, let’s move on if there are no comments.”
- Adaptive move: “I notice the room has gone quiet. That often means something important just landed. What are people holding back?”
2. Identify the Adaptive Challenge
Every group prefers to stay in the technical zone: clear problems with known solutions. Adaptive challenges require people to change values, loyalties, or behaviors. Here the facilitator distinguishes between technical and adaptive work, pushing people to own what only they can change.
When the group wants a quick fix…
- Conventional move: “Great idea, let’s draft an action plan.”
- Adaptive move: “Before we land on a fix, let’s ask: what adaptive capacity would this require of us that we don’t yet have?”
When someone says ‘we already tried that’…
- Conventional move: “Fair point, let’s park that idea.”
- Adaptive move: “Yes, you tried, but what made it impossible then? What would need to shift in loyalties, authority or how you show up for it to be possible now?”
When people blame ‘them’ (regulators, markets, consumers)…
- Conventional move: “True, they are tough constraints, so what’s in our control?”
- Adaptive move: “Yes, there are external forces. But when we blame ‘them,’ what responsibility are we avoiding in our own practices?”
3. Regulate Distress
Too much heat overwhelms; too little and nothing changes. Adaptive facilitation means constantly adjusting the thermostat. The facilitator ensures people stay in the productive zone – uncomfortable but not paralyzed.
When emotions run high…
- Conventional move: “Let’s keep this professional.”
- Adaptive move: “I can see this hits a nerve. That tells us we’re close to what matters. Let’s name what feels at risk here.”
When time is running out…
- Conventional move: “We’ve only got ten minutes so let’s wrap up with clear next steps.”
- Adaptive move: “We’re almost out of time, and the hardest question is still on the table. Do we want tidy next steps, or clarity about what remains unsettled?”
When consensus emerges too quickly…
- Conventional move: “Great, we’re aligned. Let’s move forward.”
- Adaptive move: “It feels like we got to agreement fast. What’s not being said? Who disagrees but doesn’t feel safe voicing it?”
5. Give the Work Back to the People
A facilitator’s instinct is to rescue: to solve, reassure, provide direction. Adaptive leadership resists this. If the facilitator does the work, the system doesn’t learn. This is one of the hardest shifts: not over-functioning, but pushing responsibility back where it belongs.
When participants attack the facilitator…
- Conventional move: “I hear you, but let’s stay on track.”
- Adaptive move: “It sounds like the frustration is real. But this isn’t my work to fix. What’s the work you all need to take on together?”
When someone asks the facilitator for the answer…
- Conventional move: “Based on best practice, here’s what I’d suggest.”
- Adaptive move: “I can offer ideas, but this is your adaptive work. What do you all need to wrestle with. And what risks do you need to own?”
5. Protect Voices of Leadership from Below
The edges of the system often see what the center can’t. Adaptive facilitation means amplifying those voices , even when it disrupts the group. Here the facilitator protects those who challenge the status quo, ensuring their voices aren’t dismissed.
When one person dominates…
- Conventional move: “Thank you, let’s hear from someone else.”
- Adaptive move: “I want to hear especially from those who haven’t spoken yet, particularly those who may see this differently.”
When marginalized perspectives surface an inconvenient truth…
- Conventional move: “That’s an important point. We’ll capture it for follow-up.”
- Adaptive move: “That was a bold truth to raise. Let’s pause and sit with it. What makes it hard to hear, and what does it tell us about the system we’re in?”
6. Orchestrate Conflict
Conflict isn’t a distraction from the work. It is the work. Adaptive facilitation stages conflict so groups can face trade-offs directly. Conflict reveals what’s at stake. Orchestration doesn’t mean resolution, it means keeping the heat where it’s most productive.
When a heated disagreement erupts…
- Conventional move: “Let’s take a breath. I think we’re all saying similar things.”
- Adaptive move: “I hear two deeply different commitments here: protecting near-term returns vs. reducing long-term climate risk. Let’s stay with that. What’s at stake for each of you?”
When two stakeholders make opposite demands…
- Conventional move: “Let’s compromise, each side gives a little.”
- Adaptive move: “These two demands represent real values that can’t both be satisfied at once. How do we hold them both, instead of collapsing into a false middle?”
Where the conventional facilitator aims for comfort, order and closure, the adaptive facilitator holds space for discomfort, disruption and unfinished business. These seven moves aren’t steps in a sequence. They’re a palette you draw from moment to moment as the system throws up resistance, conflict, or avoidance. In practice, you may cycle through several in a single meeting: getting on the balcony, regulating distress and giving the work back – sometimes in the same five minutes.
Meetings aren’t just about decisions. They’re crucibles where values, power and responsibility are tested. In contexts like sustainable finance, public health or organizational change, the stakes are high. Groups that avoid conflict, suppress emotion or rush to consensus rarely achieve transformation.
Adaptive facilitation equips leaders to resist those instincts and instead create conditions where people confront reality, wrestle with trade-offs and step into shared responsibility. That’s what makes a meeting worth people’s valuable time.
If this way of facilitating speaks to you, we explore it in depth in our Adaptive Facilitation course.