PhronesisChronic agenda-setting—the habitual imposition of predetermined structure on collaborative meetings regardless of situational need—constitutes a distinctive class of facilitation dysfunction that we formalize within the displacement framework. We define the ground state S^0 as calibrated adaptive facilitation: a dynamic attractor in which the facilitator continuously recalibrates structure to the emergent informational and relational needs of the group.
Chronic agenda-setting displaces the system from S^0 into a wrong attractor W, characterized by the subordination of emergent group intelligence to the facilitator's architectural preferences. We introduce the displacement cost function D() and its integral = D()\,dt, which together capture the accumulated cognitive, relational, and creative losses incurred by meeting-capture behavior.
We identify a foreclosure basin—a region of state space in which emergent conversational flows are systematically suppressed before they can self-organize—and analyze the phase transition separating productive adaptive facilitation from pathological control-through-structure. We derive conditions for intervention and characterize the recovery dynamics by which groups and facilitators can return to S^0.
Finally, we examine the systemic and ethical dimensions of meeting-capture at organizational scale, including effects on psychological safety, collective intelligence, and institutional learning. The framework offers both diagnostic precision and actionable return paths.