Peacock Feather Activity Lesson:
The importance of approaching situations from a higher perspective.
Resources: One peacock feather per team member.
Duration: 15 min
Objective of Activity: To attempt to balance the peacock feather upright on one’s index finger for as long
as possible. Instructions :
• Hand out one peacock feather to each participant. • Get them to place the tip of the peacock feather’s shaft on fleshy tip of their index finger and attempt to
keep the feather balanced upright by focussing their gaze on their index finger. (Observation : they will find it quite difficult to maintain balance, and resort to a lot of moving around to keep the feather from
falling) • After a few minutes of attempted balancing, get them to repeat the balancing act, this time with their
gaze focussed on the eye of the feather. (Observation : they will find it much easier to keep the feather balanced, with a lot less movement necessary.)
Debrief Questions:
• Which of the two attempts was easier?
• What made it easier?
Learning Points:
• When we concentrate on present situation only, we tend to be reactive. (ie. moving a lot to maintain balance, guessing at directions without being able to tell which way the feather is falling.)
• When we take a long-term view of things, we tend to be in better control and can be proactive. (ie. we
can use the ‘eye’ as a truer gauge of balance, and we can make smaller, anticipatory moves of the finger in response to movements of the ‘eye’)
• Use this activity to introduce the Levels of Perspective framework.
The importance of approaching situations from a higher perspective.
Resources: One peacock feather per team member.
Duration: 15 min
Objective of Activity: To attempt to balance the peacock feather upright on one’s index finger for as long
as possible. Instructions :
• Hand out one peacock feather to each participant. • Get them to place the tip of the peacock feather’s shaft on fleshy tip of their index finger and attempt to
keep the feather balanced upright by focussing their gaze on their index finger. (Observation : they will find it quite difficult to maintain balance, and resort to a lot of moving around to keep the feather from
falling) • After a few minutes of attempted balancing, get them to repeat the balancing act, this time with their
gaze focussed on the eye of the feather. (Observation : they will find it much easier to keep the feather balanced, with a lot less movement necessary.)
Debrief Questions:
• Which of the two attempts was easier?
• What made it easier?
Learning Points:
• When we concentrate on present situation only, we tend to be reactive. (ie. moving a lot to maintain balance, guessing at directions without being able to tell which way the feather is falling.)
• When we take a long-term view of things, we tend to be in better control and can be proactive. (ie. we
can use the ‘eye’ as a truer gauge of balance, and we can make smaller, anticipatory moves of the finger in response to movements of the ‘eye’)
• Use this activity to introduce the Levels of Perspective framework.