Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 3:13 pm

Quote from Ali Scarlett on August 12, 2021, 1:14 pm

But, what if an income tracker is exactly what we need for this concept?

You can have a different power tracker for each relationship. And, the bottom total will give a good estimate of not only your power level in that relationship, but also the overall health of the relationship (e.g. how much value-taking/value-adding behavior is going on, etc.).

The "Power In" category could also be for the (green) empowering behavior that goes above the neutral arrow:

And, for clarity, the corresponding numbers below the the arrow (i.e. below zero) would be negative—which further underlines the aim of the traffic light concept.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to share!

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Edit:

Adding a couple of notes:

• The final total can be matched against the traffic light: In the example above, the final total was -8, which means that relationship is in the red. (This comparison may not be possible in every case, but so far it looks good.)
• The starting overall balance can be adjusted: for cases when you're starting the relationship at an overall strong position, the first line in the "Overall Balance" category can reflect that.
  In the example above, the first line could've been left empty with only the overall balance square filled in at positive 3. And, that would have impacted the total balance to reflect that (more accurate) power disparity. (After all, we don't all always start every relationship at zero.)

Very interesting idea.

I might get that as a link to an excel file.

I think it might especially useful for people who still lack the feel.
So if they can't realize who's taking from their life, they can simply log for a week all their interactions with someone. And then see what comes out of it.

And great points on the numbers on the negative numbers, ranges, and starting points.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 3:15 pm

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 2:22 pm

Acquaintances

I think this graph represents the relationship with a typical acquaintance.
You don't really gain or lose any power over time.

Collaborative Relationships

For collaborative relationships, I think there should be a general upward trend with up & down motions.
Both people gain power over time with the occasional conflict.

Value-Taking Relationships

For value-taking relationships, there is a net downward trend.
In most interactions, you have to defend against power moves.

Overall

Personally, I find the graph visualisation a bit unintuitive.
It does make sense logically though.
But I need quite a bit of time to think it through.

Yes, great points.

Different types of relationships end up with very different looking charts.

On making the graph more intuitive, I'd love that.

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 3:32 pm

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 2:59 pm

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 1:02 pm

However, the colours in the legend refer to the addition/subtraction of status.
But it's the up & down movement of the graph that conveys the addition/subtraction and not really the colours.

OK, I think I get it.

I didn't fix the legend to fit the chart, so I disregarded it.

Okay, I think this is why we may be talking past each other.

1. Originally, the traffic light colours quantify the intensity of individual value-taking power moves.
2. You make the legend with this in mind.
3. Send to designer.
4. Instead of using the traffic light colours on the intensity of individual value-taking power moves, the designer uses the colours to quantity the overall power that a person has.
5. The legend and the graph do not match.
   • Legend colours describe individual power moves which affect personal power
   • Graph colours describe overall personal power
6. I gave the feedback on this, and maybe you have a different perspective on the graph.

Matthew: Personally, I find the graph visualisation a bit unintuitive.
It does make sense logically though.
But I need quite a bit of time to think it through.

Lucio: On making the graph more intuitive, I'd love that.

I think miscommunication here too.
I meant

It makes sense to me logically after thinking it through.
But it doesn't "click" with me.

At the same time, I'm not saying I won't think of how to make this more intuitive.

One idea is to remove the color zones in the graph.
And just keep it simple to positive and negative.

Then, we use red & green arrows to indicate up & down (the power moves).
We can put more red arrows for serious value-taking power moves.
We can put more green arrows for great value-adding power moves.

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 3:42 pm

One idea is to remove the color zones in the graph.
And just keep it simple to positive and negative.

Then, we use red & green arrows to indicate up & down (the power moves).
We can put more red arrows for serious value-taking power moves.
We can put more green arrows for great value-adding power moves.

This is what I meant by the above:

Edit:

Further Edit:

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 4:16 pm

Yes, I'm taking some time to process this.

At the moment I still see some value in the background colors as that can help people to immediately realize that "not all power moves are too bad", and that "they don't need to (over-)react to everything".

That's a common mistake for learners.

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 4:47 pm

I agree:

I think the vertical coloured zones would highlight the inconsequential moments and the more critical moments.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 6:01 pm

Thank you, Matthew, I really like this bar-chart approach.

It might be clearer indeed.

I let it sit a few hours.

One thing I'm not sure I understand: shouldn't the red bar end up lower, in the negative territory? And the orange bar push even lower?

I'm thinking of this right now in terms of candlestick charts (and it might not need a designer)

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on August 12, 2021, 6:56 pm

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 12, 2021, 6:01 pm

One thing I'm not sure I understand: shouldn't the red bar end up lower, in the negative territory? And the orange bar push even lower?

I'm thinking of this right now in terms of candlestick charts (and it might not need a designer)

It absolutely can end up in negative territory if the red power move is serious enough given the relationship context.
Mine is a specific example.

I was taking the case of a relationship that has survived a lot of conflicts and still goes up overall:

• First zone (green): some small argument where the partner did something wrong
  Good conflict management skills allow both to tide over the situation and continue building a collaborative relationship.
• Second zone (red): partner committed an affair.
  The sharp dip indicated a loss of trust.
  But the couple entered the healing mode and managed to recover.
• Third zone (orange): maybe subsequent argument about the affair.
  Serious but not so serious and still managed to recover.
• Maybe I should have continued drawing the graph.
  Then it goes upward from there.

For another relationship, the affair (red) can dip right down in irreparable territory and then ends.

But I wanted to illustrate also that a big, value-taking power move may not necessarily mean the relationship should end.
Equally important is that, if you handle situations well, it is possible to build a collaborative relationship even with a red power move.
Not always possible or strategically sound but sometimes it makes sense to do so.

The analogy would be a stock with high volatility but high expected returns.
Or your profits in your business went down sharply but you are still making profits.

In short, I wanted to show in this specific graph that power is not a zero-sum game.
In a collaborative relationship, both partners' personal powers can go up.

In a combative relationship, the graph would look different.
I would imagine a red power move to cause a possible vicious cycle so personal power dips into negative territory.

Not sure if I'm explaining this well.
Maybe we are on different wavelengths.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 13, 2021, 6:55 am

Got it, thank you Matthew!

You also used Canva for this?
I'm trying to find the option for the bar chart but can't seem to find it.