Basic 3 move: Bright Future
Bright Future – constructing together
As with the Reverso technique, eliciting positive terms is one of the most effective ways to lead an exchange towards a positive outcome. It is quite easy to do with accusations. Very quickly the practitioner will use the negative terms to “pivot” towards a desired direction. Once the positive direction is clear to both parties, one can propose a Bright Future “Us” Move (Aiki), as illustrated in the example below.
Partner: “You’re such a letdown in this job… I can’t believe anyone could make so many mistakes!”
Practitioner: “Tell me what you’re thinking.” (Ki-no Nagare)
Partner: “You did ‘x’, you forgot ‘y’ and there are ‘z’s all over the place now. I’m really disappointed in you!”
Practitioner: “How would you prefer to feel?” (Open Reverso)
Partner: “[***] Satisfied of course, but it’s clearly not the case!”
Practitioner: “I see, well what would get us both back to being satisfied?” (Bright Future)
Partner: “[***] Satisfied? Well I’d be satisfied if you stopped making so many mistakes!”
Practitioner: “Right, well, I am new here and I’d really like to know how you all manage to be so consistently accurate all the time. What can I do to reach that level in the future?” (Simple Reverso, Bright Future)
Partner: “[***] Has nobody shown you the event log on the server yet? It’s impossible to mess up if you follow the protocol properly…”
In this exchange, an Open Reverso draws out “satisfied” followed up by a Bright Future proposition to co-operate toward this goal. After the negativity of “making mistakes” returns, a Simple Reverso proposes “consistently accurate”, thus establishing another positively-stated constructive direction i.e. Bright Future. Proposing three successive “Us” Moves (Aiki) takes the punch out of most persistent attacks.
Examples of the technique “Bright Future” – constructing together
How can we avoid this in the future?
Maybe if we “X”, that would help us manage this better. What do you say?
What could we do to make that happen?
There must be some sort of a system that we could figure out…
Let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.