7. Preparation for the Spectrum Line

A Light-Bulb Moment!

This is the part of the video where you will need to lead your group through an important and thought-provoking exercise. You will need to do a little preparation before the session. When you do your pre-prep, please pay particular attention to Section Two: Why Nonviolence and Spectrum Lines.

You can choose to use our video or to pause it entirely and read out the progressions yourself. Both are perfectly fine. Reading it out yourself will allow you to check understanding and go at the group's pace as well as adding energy to the room. This might be preferable but using the video and pausing after each progression will have the same effect. You will find careful watching of this section of the video will help you to decide.

Online

• Pause the video.

• Check that people know how to use the chat, if people are unsure you can have a practice.

• You can read out the scenario progressions.

• Or you can pause the video after each reveal of the progression so that people can take time to decide what score to give.

• It is essential that they don’t press send on the chat until they have all three progressions. This way, for each participant, you will see in the chat:

  • Participants name: 1,3,2,

• You can then ask participants with the widest variation of scores to explain their responses and reasoning at the end of each of the three progressions. There may not be time for everyone to contribute to give their responses, however, it's of great value for the other participants to hear each other's reasoning.

• If you choose to use the video to give the progressions, you will need to be ready to pause the video between progressions to give participants time to think and then add their score to the chat. After they have pressed send, prompt a conversation about people's scores.

• If you choose to read out the progressions yourself stop the screenshare, read out the scenarios Examples A, B and C and lead a discussion about participant's responses. Then start the screenshare again at 'Extinction Rebellion’s Definition of Violence'.

In-Person

• You can prepare the room with markers indicating where the ends of the spectrum line will be. To save time later on you might like to tell people where the ends are before you start the video.
• This is a practical exercise about nonviolence and if you have anyone who has limited mobility they can remain seated and call out their position.
• You will need to pause the video between progressions to give people time to move. Or you might prefer to lead this yourself, returning to the video at 'Extinction Rebellion’s Definition of Violence' when you have finished.
• You can ask people about their choices after each progression, especially outliers or wait until you have given the three Examples. Perhaps look for the person who thinks all examples are violent, and then ask someone who tends towards the other end to give their perspective.