Form follows Function

A million years ago, I wrote my master’s thesis on the contra dance – an early American dance form like the Virginia Reel. I examined how the choreographic structure of the dance – long lines of participants dancing with and then past each other – actually led to the social mixing that was the dance’s earliest function…as a matrimonial matchmaker.

Basically, you had to dance with whomever came down the line – and then you moved on to the next person, again and again. It was a very democratic choreographic form, which is one reason it took root so well in Colonial America.

So why I am mentioning this? Because form follows function, too, at board meetings.

Last night I was at a board meeting that was too large to fit around one table. Terrific, you might say – that group has great attendance!

Well, yes, great attendance – but not great participation.

Board members sat at two separate tables, facing the executive director. One by one, board members would rise to deliver reports, then retreat again to their seats. Some people even had their backs to the person delivering the report, by the accident of the seating chart.

This group was doomed before it even started.

So what’s the answer, besides change the furniture?

Well, first off, change the furniture. Or change the configuration of the furniture. Or move from two hours of 1-person reports to small group breakout discussions. Or sweep the reports off the table into a consent agenda and spend the time discussing the potential long-term impact of a new program direction. Or the ins and outs of an environmental scan…

Somehow, this group needs to break free of the tyranny of the seating arrangement. To make the furniture follow the function of vigorous participatory dialogue – instead of having it predetermine a stilted, formal affair.