The Levelling Tool
Balancing Assertiveness With Self Restraint
Purpose
- Prepares individuals for balancing and optimising the timeliness and level of their vocal contributions to meetings.
- It also prepares individuals for a holarchic team regime.
- It may also re-calibrate shifts in a given individual's balance between self assertiveness and self restraint.
- It also enhances a feeling of fairness and mutuality among individuals in a given team.
- It is strongly somatic, rather than a purely 'thinking' tool.
Context
- Some teams are dominated by members who garrulous or over-assertive:
- They may speak too long.
- They may speak beyond their competence.
- They offer information that is inadequate or unhelpful to the team at that moment.
These team may, therefore, miss some of the potential contributions of more shy, modest, or self-deprecating members.
This is an example of a mis-match between (i.e. poor management of) the team's positional values at any given moment.
The Tool
- 1. The facilitator asks team members to stand quietly in a circle and to allow themselves to feel relaxed.
- 2. S/he asks them to visualise the team as a 'learning ecosystem' that is more important than its individual members.
- 3. S/he asks them to see themselves as (equally important) individual resources for the benefit of the whole.
- 4. S/he says:
- a) Close your eyes, stand as vertically, and as upright, as possible, then 'hold onto the experience'.
- b) Now, lean forward as far as possible without falling over.
- c) Return to your upright position and feel the difference.
- d) Now, lean backward as far as possible without falling over.
- e) Return to your upright position and feel the difference.
- 5. (The experience of standing upright denotes your state of calm readiness to contribute when needed.)
- 6. (The experience of leaning forward denotes your ability to fully commit to contributing what is needed).
- 7. (The experience of leaning backward denotes your sense that, in this moment, you should defer to others.
Date of Conception
- Sunday 20th January 2008 - after a m21 discussion on Friday 18th January.
- This followed Julia's talk on co-authoring. The original method was shown me by Otto, several years ago.
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