When the room has a dominant force: an article worth discussing

On 9 October, the LinkedIn group Aikido in Leadership published an article by Dr Ahmad Salih: "When the Room Has a Dominant Force: Aikido, Psychological Safety, and the Art of Centered Presence".

He starts from a scene every aikidoka knows. One practitioner steps onto the mat and the atmosphere changes. Newer students hold back, drift toward safer partners, train carefully so as not to be noticed. He argues that this is not a technique problem but a psychological safety problem, and that the same withdrawal happens in boardrooms, committees and professional forums.

A few of his ideas:

• Tension is not the enemy; unprocessed tension is. Matching a dominant force creates conflict; collapsing away from it hands the room over to it.
• Irimi-tenkan as the third option: enter close enough to feel the force, then turn. A turn without the entry, he writes, is "retreat with good posture".
• Centering is an active practice, renewed again and again under pressure, not a calm state you decide to be in.
• Ma-ai in a meeting: knowing when to speak and when to stay still, when closeness creates connection and when it creates collision.
• Psychological safety does not come from removing difficult personalities, but from having people grounded enough to hold the space, and to widen the circle so that more voices can be heard.

He illustrates this with four years spent working under a dominating manager, and with how bringing the mat into that relationship changed the quality of their exchanges.

The article also connects these ideas to the themes of the Brussels forum, 17–18 October.

Read the full article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-room-has-dominant-force-aikido-psychological-usb3f/

What do you recognise from your own practice, on the mat or at work? Share your view in the comments.