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Fishbowl discussion: the empty chair and the rule

A conversation anybody can join by taking an empty chair, which is the whole mechanism.

A fishbowl discussion is a conversation held in front of an audience that anybody in the audience can join. A small ring of chairs sits at the front, one of them is always empty, and taking the empty chair is how somebody enters the conversation. Somebody already sitting then leaves, so the ring stays the same size and the discussion never becomes a crowd.

The ring, the empty chair, and the rule that keeps it moving Four chairs face each other at the front of the room with a fifth left empty. Anybody from the audience may take the empty chair, at which point one of the four leaves, so the ring stays at four speakers and one vacancy throughout. Four speaking, one chair always empty empty Anybody may take the empty chair. When somebody does, one of the four stands up and sits down again. The ring never grows. the rest of the room, watching, and free to join at any moment The vacancy is the whole mechanism: it is an invitation that does not have to be issued.
The ring and the empty chair. The format’s single rule does all the work, which is why it survives being run by somebody who has never run one.

How it is run

Four or five chairs at the front, one always empty. A facilitator states the subject and the rule, sits in one of the chairs or beside them, and then mostly keeps quiet. Anybody may take the empty chair at any moment; when they do, one of the sitting people leaves, and which one is usually left to whoever feels they have said enough.

The rule is the entire format. It removes the two things that make an open discussion fail: there is no queue for a microphone, and there is no need to be invited, because the empty chair is a standing invitation that nobody has to issue.

What it is good for

Subjects where the room contains more expertise than the stage does, and where the useful thing is a range of positions rather than one. Hiring practices, how teams handle on-call, what a community should do about a recurring problem: subjects where twenty people have direct experience and no individual has the answer.

Use it when the room knows more than the panel would.

It is also the best available format for a subject that would otherwise be a panel of the same four people who spoke elsewhere that day, because it lets the room supply positions the programme committee could not have anticipated.

Where it goes wrong

Nobody moves. The commonest failure and the one to prepare for. It is fixed by seeding: two or three people asked beforehand to take the chair in the first few minutes, which is enough to demonstrate that the mechanism is real.

Somebody will not leave. A person who takes a chair and stays for the whole session defeats the rotation. A facilitator willing to say plainly that the ring should turn over solves it, and saying so once at the start is easier than intervening later.

The subject is too narrow. A fishbowl on a specific technical question runs out in ten minutes, because only three people in the room have an opinion. The format needs a subject that many people have met.

The room is the wrong shape. A raked lecture theatre with fixed seating makes getting to the front slow and public, which suppresses the whole mechanism. A flat room with movable chairs is close to a requirement.

Scheduling one

Forty-five to sixty minutes. Shorter and the rotation never gets going; longer and it thins out, because the people with something to say have usually said it by then.

Late morning or early afternoon works better than the first or last slot: the room needs to have warmed up, and it needs enough energy left to stand up in front of people. Where it sits in a day is covered on programme and tracks.

What it is confused with

A panel discussion. Fixed speakers chosen in advance, with the audience confined to questions at the end. The difference is who can join, and it changes everything about how the hour goes. See panel discussion.

An open-space session. Part of an unconference, where the subject as well as the participants come from the room. A fishbowl has a fixed subject and an open cast. See unconference.

A birds-of-a-feather session. An informal gathering around a shared interest with no structure at all, usually over lunch or in the evening.

The rest is in the glossary.

Questions

What is a fishbowl discussion?

A conversation at the front of a room that anybody in the audience can join by taking an empty chair. When somebody sits down, one of the existing speakers leaves, so the ring stays the same size and the discussion never turns into a crowd.

How is it different from a panel?

Who can join. A panel has fixed speakers chosen in advance and confines the audience to questions at the end. A fishbowl has a fixed subject and an open cast, and the empty chair is a standing invitation nobody has to issue.

What if nobody takes the empty chair?

The commonest failure, and it is prevented rather than fixed. Ask two or three people beforehand to take the chair in the first few minutes. Once the room has seen the mechanism work once, it works on its own.

What subjects suit the format?

Ones where the room holds more experience than any stage would: hiring, on-call, how a community handles a recurring problem. A narrow technical question runs out in ten minutes because only three people present have an opinion about it.

How long should a fishbowl run?

Forty-five to sixty minutes. Shorter and the rotation never gets going; longer and it thins out, because the people with something to say have generally said it by then.