In the search for radical new approaches to the problems of society, there is therefore a case for exploring radical new approaches to meeting. How such an exploration might take place is however also part of the discovery process. A major difficulty with the meeting environment is the way in which participants, facilitators, organizers and sponsors tend to bring a quality of premature closure to the event. In this way co-creation is filtered or designed out of it, often when it is most needed. There are expectations of what the event will produce which pre-determine its structure and dynamics.
People naturally bring agendas, whether explicit or hidden, or possibly even unconscious.
There is also a strong presumption that whatever emerges can then be readily imposed on a receptive outside world for its greater good. Facilitators sensitive to these questions tend to be uncritical about the distortions they themselves bring through their favourite process often believed to be a panacea. To the extent that such dimensions reflect a form of closure, they themselves should paradoxically be challenged by a sense of tentativeness, contingency and ignorance, as vital conditions for effective co-creation. Paradoxically also, efforts to bring about premature closure should be welcomed as material which can be processed into more appropriate forms and patterns. But any traces of condescension also need to be challenged.