By Nick Routledge, January 17, 2007 (via email)

Had a fascinating experience at the epg-sponsored facilitation workshop hosted at the All Nations Longhouse this past weekend. Tree Bressen attempted to illustrate how certain social tools afford insight into issues that have a natural continuum of opinion. One technique we tried: kinesthetic mapping; around an issue I suggested -- attitudes to native and exotic plants. It was all very spontaneous but Tree's description of the spectrum of opinion a line of people represents -- all in favor of just natives to stand at one end, all in favor of lotsa exotics at the other, mixes of opinion in the middle -- worked on a level that simply can't be rationalized as we shuffled to our respective positions. The ability to see an entirely flowing spectrum of opinion (bell curve in middle) so clearly manfested is both seen and felt. Bodies are put to the story. Extreme positions are revealed quite clearly as minority-held positions. It had the odd effect of modulating the vibe even as we very curiously eyed one another up. "Well, I didn't think you'd be over here with us, Nick" said one woman, to me. The exercise reveals a common courage, I sense, wherever people stand.

Variations on the exercise, I'm told, involve folding the line at the halfway point, pairing up the two people at the extreme ends and so on down the line (until the middle people ae paired with each other) then asking the partners to have a short conversation about why they feel the way they do.

A most useful and absolutely fascinating exercise.

back to articles [0]  back to main event page [0]