Exercise: Facing an Attack

FOUR WAYS TO RESPOND TO AN ATTACK
1. Defensiveness	2. Attacking Back
3. Accepting the Attack	4. Assisting the Attacker

The Leadership as Martial Artist by Arnold Mindell

Get into pairs and face each other. One person is ‘A’ and the other is ‘B’

Defensive: disagree and say the attack is baseless
Attacking Back: go on the offensive and challenge the attacker’s status quo, credibility
Accept: Accept the attack, perhaps followed by getting advice from the attacker on how one should use the information
Assist the Attacker: offer the attackers more information about you or help them to be more specific and less general in their attack

First: ‘A’ practice handling attacks from ‘B’

Person B: think of an attack that A might face or ask if A has an attack in mind
Person B: Start the attack
Person A: respond by being defensive etc. – Try all four methods
Person B: When you finish, debrief
Person A: Reverse Roles

Any of these four responses could be useful in gaining understanding and could also be confusing to the attacker, for example, how should the attacker respond if the target accepts the attack – be happy? Attack more? If you’re the target, that confusion could become an advantage.
If one response doesn’t work, choose another. Bottomline, this tool is about increasing flexibility, awareness, and tolerance of attacks. It is a pro-awareness and pro-conflict practice session for handling confrontation and attacks.
Cultural Note: The word “attack” might be triggering. Confrontation, challenge or resistance are other possible words to describe the same thing.

This tool comes from Daniel Hunter and Nico Amador of Training for Change