Step by Step Walk Through
Introduce the Concept
Intro 1: The “be more creative” intro
Raise your hand if you would like to be more creative.
Raise your hand if you would like to experience more pressure?
What if I told you there is a relationship between the two and to be more creative you need to be willing to experience more pressure?
Intro 2: The achieve a stretch goal intro
Raise your hand if you have stretch goals that are difficult to achieve?
Raise your hand if you would like to achieve those stretch goals while experiencing less pressure?
In this exercise we are going to explore how to get more of what you really want while experiencing less pressure.
Intro 3: The release of pressure intro
Raise your hand if you experience pressure at work (or whatever the context of the program is)
Raise you hand if you would like LESS pressure, while getting more of what you really want?
In this exercises we will explore how to do that.
Selecting the Focus Person
This is a critical choice. If this is a high-stake part of the program, you may want to pre-choose someone and rehearse “finding the middle” and Raising their hand under pressure.
“I need a volunteer to help us understand how pressure connects to creativity.”
Welcome them to the center of the stage.
“Do you experience pressure in [context of the program, e.g. work]? Great, you are going to represent the options for handling pressure for all of us.
Selecting the Success Image Person
I sometimes ask the Focus Person to choose this volunteer. This person won’t need to talk much and you will be influencing their movements so it is not as important to pre-select this person.
“I need another volunteer to represent our beautiful future that we work so hard to achieve.”
Welcome them to stage right.
Set the Stretch Rope Metaphor
“We all want tomorrow to be better than today, so we give ourselves stretch goals to motivate us to move into the beautiful future. In our demo, this stretch rope represents the connection between our stretch goal and our current reality.”
[Place the stretch rope over the waists of the two people]
Demonstrate PULL
[Stand to the side of Success Image person, and hold on to the stretch rope. As you introduce the concept of “pull,” pull the person away from the focus person. ]
“We set stretch goals to PULL is into the future we desire. The bigger the stretch, the more energy pulling is into the future.”
Question if this is accurate?
“But life isn’t this easy. If all we had to do to achieve a goal is set one, then we would keep all of our New Year resolutions, and every goal would become reality…”
Add “the chair” and bring up a person to sit in it
“To symbolize the challenge involved in achieving any goal we need to add to our model. Can I get one more volunteer?”
[Bring up the third volunteer and ask them to sit in the chair.]
“All you have to do is just sit there and relax.”
Add the 2nd stretch rope
[Get the second stretch rope and place it over the waists of the focus person and the person in the chair (make sure to place it around their waist and not over the back of the chair). Don’t give any description of the meaning of the person in the chair at this point].
Brief the players on what will happen and their roles
“Ok, we said that we all experience pressure, so we are going to load up our demonstration to provide some pressure to our focus person in the middle.
[make sure the focus person is facing the success image and speak directly to the focus person]
“As we do this, I want you to move with the tension of the ropes to keep yourself in the middle of the tension. Once the pressure is too much, raise your hand and we will stop.”
LOAD the pressure from the Success Image side
[Hold on to the stretch rope of the Success Person and pull away from the focus person. As you do this, remind the focus person to keep finding the middle. ]
“As the success image moves, keep moving to the middle of the tension.”
Interact with the Focus Person
[When the focus person raises their hand, or when you think their is enough pressure, stop the movement away, but continue to hold the rope so the person representing the success image does not move back towards the focus person.]
“Would you like us to stop? How does that feel? Would you like to experience less pressure?”
RELEASE the Pressure from the Success Image side
“Ok, on the count of three we are going to take two big steps toward the person in the middle. one, two three…
[Continue holding the stretch rope. When you say “three” move the success image person two big steps toward the focus person.
They should have moved back towards the chair when the success image moved closer to them]
Interact with the Focus Person: How do you feel?
[To the focus person] How do you feel? (less pressure, comfortable, free, I can breathe).
Interact with the Audience: what did you see/notice?
“What did you notice?“
[The answer you are looking for is they took a step back]
Describe what happens when we settle for less.
“In your experience does this happen our lives? We set a stretch goal that we think we can accomplish, but then it becomes more dificult than we thought, and we lower the goal… and as we lower the goal we feel a sense of relief, but we also take a step backwards.
While doing this on occasion is healthy, if we create a pattern of feeling pressure and then settling for less, feeling pressure and then settling for less, over time we find ourselves moving backwards instead of forward in life.”
Offer an alternative
“But there is an alternative…”
LOAD the pressure from the Success Image Side
“Let’s reload the pressure. Just like before, keep moving to stay in the middle of the pressure, and raise your hand when the pressure is enough.”
[tell the success image person not to move]
RELEASE the pressure from the Chair side.
[stand behind the person in the chair and speak to them]
“On the count of three I want you to stand up and take two steps forward.”
[Ensure they take two steps and observe the focus person to ensure they are pulled forward]
Interact with the Focus Person: How do you feel?
“How do you feel” What do you notice?”
Interact with the Audience: what did you see/notice?
“What did you notice?
[The point is to get the focus person to say, “I feel less pressure and I moved forward towards my goal.”]
Show appreciation for our players
“Let’s give a round of applause to our players”
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