Left Side Column

The facilitator leads the group through the protocol, reading the Genesis, the Process, the Example, and the Notes in sequence.

This protocol comes from a rather entrepreneurial model, which is worked out on paper (see reference below). In the original protocol, a person who has experienced a difficult exchange with a superior is invited to record the dialogue in question on a large sheet of paper, with his or her own words on the left, and the superior's words on the right. To the left of this exchange, in the “Left Side Column”, the person is asked to note everything she thought, felt, but didn't dare say - but which had an impact on everything she said. The protocol then suggests replaying the dialogue (with a caring colleague), integrating or using the emotional elements. Our version proposes a verbal version, enacted live, which deeply de-dramatizes the situation.

When we talk, work, cooperate: we dialogue. This dialogue is verbal, but not exclusively so. All dialogue is nourished by things felt - triggered by the dialogue itself or by other aspects. All these felt but unexpressed feelings would be like a Left Side Column, noted alongside the “audible” dialogue.

Rather than leaving these things unsaid, we can invoke the need to conscientize and verbalize the Left Side Column.

• A person can say “Left Side Column” at any time.

• The group stops, and the person expresses his or her concern, doubt or perception.

• The other participants can reassure (or not) the speaker and bring the situation into focus.

“During a collective brainstorming residency, I felt completely criticized for all the ideas I gave. I invoked the left side column: 'Help, I've got a Left Side Column: I've got the feeling that you think everything I propose is rubbish'. Everyone reassured me, not at all, I was paranoid”.

We're all preoccupied by more or less irrational fears. Particularly in groups, we undergo and create complex social pressures, often with devastating effects.

The Left Side Column allows us to put them to rest quickly and easily. Its use emphasizes the well-being of group members and the acceptance of any concerns that might be considered minor. It also allows us to assume, as long as the Left Side Column is not invoked, that all is well.

From experience, this protocol creates deep trust, provides an immediate breath of fresh air and brings each group member back to the same human level. 

This protocol has been adapted from the one of the same name in: Béatrice Arnaud, Sylvie Cahn: La boîte à outil de l'intelligence collective, Editions Dunod, 2016.