Episode 12 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we lay down some spectrum lines: what they bring, issues and benefits.
'What's really valuable about them is their way of drawing out and making visible polarity' - Sami
Show notes, links

The perenially-useful Seeds for Change have a description of spectrum lines on their tools page.

Training For Change have a video 10 Ways to Use A Spectogram Online. ("spectrogram" is another term for "spectrum line"), which includes a how-to guide for making your own spectrum line slides in Google Slides.

See our "What is facilitation?" podcast episode page for more general facilitation resources.

Transcript
Ali: This is Resist + Renew.

Kat: A UK-based podcast about social movements.

Sami: What we're fighting for, why, and how it all happens.

Ali: The hosts of the show are:

Kat: Me Kat,

Sami: Me, Sami,

Ali: and me, Ali,

Sami: I'm recording this now baby

Ali: Shit it's a podcast.

*Laughter*

Sami: Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Toolbox. So today we are talking about spectrum lines. The reason I'm doing the introduction is because spectrum lines, I have decided, are my favourite facilitation tool. And what they are, is it's a tool used to kind of show a spectrum or a continuum of positions on a thing, often they're framed around a question. And which you can sometimes it will be like, often the IRL version will be like two ends of a room. So it will be go towards this end of the room if you feel this way about something and go to the other side of the room if you feel the opposite way about something. And so could be like how much you agree with a question. And then like from not at all to loads. That's a classic spectrum line. And, and online equivalent versions that people do are things for example, where they'll like put a little line on like a slide tool that everyone can edit. And then everyone like put a dot somewhere on the line, things like that. So that's what it is. And and very quickly. So what it's good for generally, it's a it's used as a thing where you can kind of it's used as a tool to highlight differences in response to something that's a very broad answer. Maybe Ali, if you can give a specific example. Yeah, let's make that concrete.

Ali: Let's make it concrete. Okay, so sometimes I run workshops on things around sci fi, and like utopia and dystopia. And I've used spectrum lines in the beginning of those kind of workshops, asking kind of questions like that one in the room would be I think the world is getting better. And at the other end of the room, I'd have I think the world is getting worse. And people stand on the line in that position. And I think it's, it's, yeah, I've enjoyed doing these spectrum lines, because it draws out like a whole range of opinions and perspectives around the world, like, how can anyone objectively say which it is like it's too difficult, you can always draw examples of things which are good in the world. And you can always try examples of bad things that are bad in the world. And I find that optimists and pessimists struggle to talk to each other, like they're so wrapped up in their particular worldview. But like with this spectrum line, I found that it was like, a powerful and quite emotional way of getting those people to talk to each other and see, like, the complexity and the ‘both and’ in that situation. So it is really shift in some places and certain situations. And it is really amazing in certain situations, and often in the same place, it can be both things.