The word power can conjure many images. Some may immediately envision its worst impulses, thinking of greed, corruption, and negligence. This may be especially true for those entrenched in capitalist systems, where we are conditioned to equate power with wealth and control.
The Stanford prison experiment is perhaps the most popular example of how even simulated power can affect one’s behavior. There’s also a lesser-known study about young students’ abuse of power during a classroom experiment to teach discrimination.
In both cases, there is a deference to authority without much critical reflection. Child, parent. Student, teacher. Employee, boss. In most modern settings, we are rarely encouraged to question authority figures and are often outright discouraged from doing so. We are punished – groundings, detentions, reprimands – when we push boundaries, and rewarded – allowances, good grades, promotions – when we act as expected.
But why do we give others the power to establish rules that create harm? Can power be a force for good if even the youngest among us are called to its darkest seductions?
We believe that power doesn’t need to be defined by its hateful outcomes, though. Like most things in life, we can impact the consequences in several ways. It is what we do with power that makes a difference. Folks like Eric Liu and adrienne maree brown are encouraging everyone to rethink what it means to use power as a force for good.
We can come together with others to vote, protest, call elected officials, and take other actions to use collective civic power. We can also use our own positional power in our workplace and homes to empower, engage, and encourage others. We can reject the conditioning around power to dictate, direct, and demonize, falling into patterns of “need to know” and “because I said so.” We can pause and remember that there is space for others to know, teach, and participate in big and small decisions.
At Voqal Partners, we took this responsibility to heart. Previously, our own internal culture centered on fear, as leadership discouraged questions and alternative ideas, further stifling engagement and progress. For example, job duties didn’t match job titles, creating confusion and inefficiencies that leadership ignored because it required them to reflect and change – things that require time they claimed not to have.
We shifted the culture to one that encourages engagement, feedback, and continuous improvement. We developed clear job descriptions and aligned roles and responsibilities, enabling every employee to streamline and strategize beyond the day-to-day. Leadership became more accessible, and staff were given a voice in shaping the organization’s future.
Staff engagement has significantly improved, reflected in the high employee satisfaction results. While no workplace is perfect, we have made great strides in fostering a culture where people feel valued, heard, and motivated to do their best work. We are cultivating the society we want to live in.
This is hard work. It is not easy to forget a lifetime of conditioning, especially when the harmful system still dominates. But it is worthwhile work to build a culture that encourages a stronger, correlated relationship between power and participation. In doing so, we can take small steps from collectively moving away from traditional power hoarding and toward transformative power sharing.
When it is the most exhausting, we think of Jimi Hendrix and his words: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
