Why our meetings are held behind closed doors

It isn't secrecy: it's the condition for someone to say out loud what they think before they've decided it.

Every time we explain how we work, the same question comes up: if dialogue is so valuable, why isn't it broadcast.

What changes when there's a camera

With an audience, the speaker stops thinking out loud and starts defending a position. And a defended position no longer moves: the conversation becomes two speeches taking turns.

What we're after is what comes before that — the moment when someone is still forming an opinion and can hear an argument without it costing them anything to change their mind.

What is public

Who we are, who attends each gathering, and what was discussed. What never leaves the room is who said what.

It's the Chatham House Rule, seventy years old because it works: you can use what you heard, you just can't attribute it.

Where the line is

A private space isn't a space without rules. No decisions are made, nothing is signed, and no one represents anyone but themselves.