In this video, I want to look at a helpful tool called perceptual positions. And this is just based on something very, very simple. Any environment in any experience, there are three principal positions that people can be in, they can either be in the me position, how I see things, my perception the world, the you position, how you see things, your perception of me and the world or a third party position. And neutral observer, a fly on the wall, if you like, that looks at me looks at you sees how we're interacting and sees how we operate within the environment. These are known as the first person, me, the second person, you and the third person positions or just simply First, second, and third, perceptual positions. and the value of this exercise is that it invites people to step out of their own skin to step away from their own points of view, and start to inhabit the point of view of the other person and to inhabit an objective, rational, observational point of view.

So how do you run this exercise? Well, the first thing I will do is try to make it as active as possible. So I'm not going to do it with people sitting in their seats, just imagining things, because that doesn't work nearly as well as getting people up on their hind legs. So I'll clear space in the room. And then I will put big posters on three of the walls. So one wall will have me or first position, the opposite wall will have you or second position and then the back wall.

We'll have them or observers, or third position. In fact, sometimes I just put a picture of a fly represents a fly on the wall observing. Then I'll invite people to stand by the wall that's labeled me with their backs to it, looking at the war that's labeled you. I'll ask them to close their eyes. And I'll describe the context in which I want to run the exercise. And I'll invite them to examine their own perceptions of the other person, the situation and to think about how they see things and what's important to them.

And the kind of behaviors they observe and what makes them frustrated. What excites them. What are they like, what do they not like? Once they've bathed for a few minutes, in their own perceptions of the situation, I'll ask them to open their eyes and just move around a little bit. I know To break that kind of mental state a little bit, so I'll ask a completely random question like Does anybody know what we're having for lunch today? Once people have relaxed a bit, I'll then invite them to step across the room so that they're standing with their backs to the you, wall, looking at me.

I'll then invite them to close their eyes again. And imagine now that they're sitting in the position of the other person looking back at themselves, us to think about what they know about that other person, how that person thinks, what's important to them, what they care about, what matters what they want, what they need from situation, and how they perceive the person opposite. So on now get them to think about how they perceive the world. From the point of view of other person. This is great helping people with conflict Planning for negotiations, or anticipating how stakeholders will respond. And when they've done that, I'll ask them to open their eyes, loosen up a bit, perhaps make some notes about things they noticed.

While they were thinking this through. I'll ask another random question just to get them talking about something different. And then I'll finally move into the third position, with their backs to the wall of the neutral observer. I'll ask them to close their eyes and imagine looking at me, and they you positions and ask them to think about what they're noticing about the way those two people interact. The way the conversation goes, the things that they say that aren't properly understood, the confusions that arise the sort of body language they're seeing and what that might mean. Once again, when they open their eyes I'll get him to take some notes and then we'll have a discussion route.

I can do this with a group of people I can do it with an individual. Do it for yourself. But if you do it for yourself, it will work better if you physically move around a room. Well this is great for is understanding the way different people think understanding the dynamics between people. So as an exercise for preparing for stakeholder engagement for anticipating resistance to change, for understanding people's perceptions of what's going on in the organization, it is a fantastic exercise. It's called the perceptual positions exercise.