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The Levelling Tool

Balancing Assertiveness With Self Restraint

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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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