During an Inclutrain training session, Rainer agrees to give a demonstration in which he tries to align with Max. Max agrees to take part. I support Rainer in my role as an Inclutrain trainer during this experiment.
Shortly before the demonstration, I tell Rainer about Max’s impulse to act. The day before, we had discovered this in a working group with other people: ‘securing while observing’. Then we get started! Rainer introduces Max to the audience and mentions his impulse to act. He has decided not to align with Max just yet and says: “Max, would you like to put the logs lying on the floor into the wheelbarrow?” Then he stands there and watches as Max does it. Max is willing. He picks up two logs one after the other, puts them in the wheelbarrow, stands up and looks out at the audience – not at Rainer. Rainer encourages Max to carry on. Max grabs two more logs, stands up and looks around once more. It is clear that Rainer is not aligning with Max.
After the demonstration, the audience describes this moment as follows: Max has imitated Rainer. Time and again, he has stood there and looked around.
I am unaware of Rainer’s intention to demonstrate non-participation at first. I give Rainer a tip intended to encourage participation: “Join in and don’t just stand there watching Max do the work.” Rainer takes this on board and begins to help load the wheelbarrow.
When the wheelbarrow is full, Max takes it to the wood store. Rainer has decided to show Max how to stack the wood in the wood store. He expects Max to watch him and says: “Take the logs and stack them like this.” But Max keeps looking around as he stacks the wood, sometimes at the audience, sometimes at Rainer.
I give Rainer a new tip: “When I stack logs, I turn the log so that it lies stable and I can easily place the next log on top of it. I realise that I’m proceeding by ‘securing while observing’ there. I assume that you, Rainer, do the same. Say out loud what you’re thinking as you stack. Speak freely into the room, not to Max!”
Rainer takes the tip on board and describes what he is thinking and doing whilst stacking the wood. It’s working! Now Rainer and Max are side by side, concentrating on their work. They take logs from the wheelbarrow. They stack them on top of the existing pile in the wood store. Rainer notices that Max is paying attention to him whilst stacking the wood himself.
The 30 or so spectators standing around them can see that Rainer has now aligned with Max and is reinforcing his positive qualities.
The whole demonstration lasted about 10 minutes.
Half a day later, a work support mentor and I are talking to Max. We ask him about his experience of yesterday’s demonstration. Max thinks for a moment. He can only describe the last two minutes: “Rainer imitated me!” So Rainer only did it Max’s way at the very end. Or to put it another way, he aligned with the way Max acted. He accepted Max’s impulse to act.
