Welcome back to Be and Think in the House of Trust, a podcast presented be me Servane Mouazan, from Conscious Innovation. And it is for you if you love to invest in social an environmental change and want to explore ways that bring us closer together, and help us make sense of what matters.
On a few occasions in the past months, I have gathered with funders, entrepreneurs, activists, organisers, to think about “Sharing Power”.
What can we sow and what can we compost?
In this short episode today, I am sharing a snapshot of the rich, nuanced and explorative soil that we laboured. I will also share the questions that I asked the group, so you can try this with others too, if you’re keen.
MUSIC
One of the first questions I asked was:
What is a positive example of shared power that you've ever personally experienced and cherished, in whatever context.
You can pause the recording for 2 min and reflect.
Welcome back:
The second invitation
Suppose this reflexion about sharing power was helping you move into the right direction for you, what would you notice in this future state?
This Invitation is to think about situations where power can be shared, and contemplate the multiple relationships and connections present or possible in this system.
Here’s what we got:
Participants imagined a system that softens itself.
We saw individuals starting to move and take power instead of waiting for it to be taken.
We saw more space, a feeling of expansion
We saw new types of structure making the scaffolding for power sharing
In this new soft system, we felt more equipped and grounded to navigate relationships.
The groups shared observations and questions from that future state:
• Do I understand people’s needs?
• Someone else said: sharing power is not using power to elevate others, but giving up the power, losing something to create something
• Another one said: If I pause, I can map and articulate the direct, personal connection to my impact
• I can see (at least I start to sense!) an infrastructure that supports power-sharing. I can also see when the infrastructure goes against power sharing despite our willingness to do so.
• Finally, another observation was that “The act and benefit of giving up power is collective and inter-relational”.
The Sharing Power Wheel
We built a sharing power wheel, a visual aide that gives us a tangible perspective on what we might need to accomplish power sharing and have a clear overview of our current state.
• Imagine a wheel, divided in 8 parts:
• The 8 parts are 8 themes that came out of observations and interviews conducted over time about sharing power.
• The 8 themes are participation, inclusive structures, agency, collaboration, energy and enthusiasm, asking for help, responsibility and stewardship, flexibility.
• I invited the participants to sense how much of each theme was present in their current situation on a scale of 1 to 10. At the end, we had of course various shapes, wonky wheels and many insights.
• What came out first is that this theme are neither good nor bad, they are all interdependent and what feels good can actually be detrimental in a group, and vice versa.
My following question to all participants was:
What can we credibly assume that is true and liberating that will enable us to move our complex web of relationships towards shared power?
Before I share what people found, You can pause the recording and think for yourself.
Welcome back!
Here’s what people found:
• Flexibility means having empathy for others first
• But a lack of structure can lead to frustration. So, my new assumption is that we could give up some “flexibility” to build scaffolding and support for people in our common journey.
• We learn together to share power, it is a collective process, not a top-down decision
• I can Embrace “asking for help” more, “trusting to delegate”
• Stewarding for me would be the opposite of “doing it for them because it is quicker”.
• Sharing power could start with: I can let people make mistakes, have more agency and experience power of learning.
• I can practise self-advocacy and have a go instead of waiting. What good can happen? This is where impact is.
• Doing less gives me more space. Because when I burn out, the power pot shrinks.
I am going to stop there. You can find the Sharing power wheel on my website.
I am curious to hear what the questions did for you.
So I look forward to welcoming you back to the House of Trust again. If you don’t want to miss it, subscribe to the show anywhere you can find your podcasts. For more insights, and opportunities to think independently for yourself or your team, head to my website, servanemouazan.co.uk and sign up for my regular conscious innovation updates.
For people who love to invest in social change and ignite a positive impact.
I look forward to connecting with you. Goodbye
