Positively Devious
Beat what's expected. Build what's needed. The climb, mapped.
The Climb
Six rungs, from caring about something to answering for something. People climb by doing real things together. Someone helps you up. You help someone behind you. Every page here serves one of those two moves.
No accounts, no sign-up. Click and read.
Which one is you?
You care about something. You watch it. You have not acted on it yet. → That is the couch · Watching the Weather. Everyone starts there. Begin: Show up to something
You show up to things other people run. → You are a participant · On the Rope. Your rung: Show up well · Your next step: Take your first responsibility
You hold at least one responsibility, reliably: people can count on you for it. → You are a volunteer · The Spotter. Your rung: Be the one they count on · Your next step: Run a whole thing
You have run at least one entire cycle of an activity, end to end. → You are a peer leader · Reading the Route. Your rung: Run whole cycles well · Your next step: Build the machine
You build teams and structures, develop peer leaders, and run campaigns or programmes. → You are an organiser · Route-Setter. Your rung: Be the one who builds people · Your next step: Get in the room
You set direction and answer for what gets built. → You are a decision maker · Calling the Route. Your rung: Launch or govern, and answer for it
Developing someone?
Then you are the person these pages were most written for. Every step up has a page for the one doing the developing:
Bring someone in · Hand a first responsibility · Hand someone a whole thing · Grow an organiser · Put someone in the room
Two honest notes
- The climb happens in real groups, not on this site. These pages are equipment: the moving is done by people, together, where you live.
- Wherever you stand, two questions matter: what is my next step up, and who am I helping up behind me? Development runs both ways at every rung.
Using AI along the way? Read the honest page about AI first.