Sharing and Building Power: understanding how power works and the tools that are needed

Summary of main points

• In order to share and build power we need to understand how it works. There are many forms of power, from individual, collective, social and societal, and these interact with each other.

• The Sheila McKechnie’s draft Framework for the Accountable Use of Power encourages us to take a hard look at access to resources and formal rules and policies and also to deepen our own consciousness of power and capabilities, as well as our culture and connections, leading to reflective practice and a conscious shift in exclusionary cultures, narratives and practices.

• Taking power starts with oneself, including challenging self-limiting beliefs and practices. There is a dangerous narrative of finite power which can be self-constricting for individuals and organisations.  Being reflective about the different types of power, whether power over, power within, power for, or power to, helps create a greater consciousness and can be enabling.

• Asking the question ‘why’ can help to build a strong ‘power for’ with a common purpose and shared values which in turn makes it easier to give staff more power and to be more powerful externally.  Radical listening, particularly with those who are effectively silenced now, helps unlock this power.

• Relatively hidden forces can be a significant block to sharing and building power and these need to be understood and addressed. Internal governance, systems and processes, including regulatory requirements, can be disempowering to both staff and communities.  Power imbalances, for example between professionals and those served, should be recognised and addressed. Culture can make cross sectoral alliances difficult, for example.

• The social sector needs to do more to share its own power and build power with others, while also calling out abuses of power in society.

In more detail

Caroline Slocock, co-convenor of a Better Way, introduced the meeting by talking about what the network had already learnt about power:

• Sharing power requires awareness and new tools
  Each of us can play a part, by understanding the sources of power and privilege, including our own, and identifying the blockages that prevent power from being shared. 

• Authentic voices can challenge existing sources of power
  Authentic voices stemming from personal experience can challenge existing sources of power, if they are not used in a tokenistic way. Storytelling ‘from the heart’ can be powerful.

• Connecting people creates power
  Connecting people – for example, through networks, coalitions and activities that link people together – creates new forms of power. Communities themselves also generate power, sometimes out of negative experiences, as Covid-19 has shown.

She explained that we were going to explore the first of these during this session, and introduced the thought leader for the cell, Sue Tibballs, the CEO of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK), which has been working on how to build and share power over the last few years. 

Sue Tibballs said that in order to build and challenge power, we need an understanding of how power works, which is why SMK have been producing various tools to help and she said it would be great to get the group’s input to these at this meeting.  These were still being finalised and would be published in an interim report in due course.  There have been previous attempts to understand power, she said, but these have often included binary assumptions when in reality power was more complex, and they had not taken hold.  Covid-19 had made it even more clear that we live in an unequal society.  The significant challenge for the social sector is to reform itself so that it shares power more equally while also exercising its own power externally.  This is all the more difficult when its power is currently being challenged by the Government.

Sarah Thomas from SMK then outlined the draft tools they are developing.  She said that they had mapped examples and had identified a nested system of power, as shown below.

These interacted with each other, rather like a dance.  Power is both an enabler and a constraint, and the draft Framework for the Accountable Use of Power SMK have developed allows us to understand better its nature and what we can do to share and build power ourselves.  This framework has four dimensions – consciousness and capabilities; culture and connections; resources; and formal rules and policies including governance.  This slide sets these out in more detail. 

The last two quadrants show the formal and arguably more familiar elements.  On resources, accountability is needed not just to ensure equitable access to money but also technology, information and networks.  Inside organisations, a review of formal rules and policies is important, including governance and procedures, because these can be a barrier to sharing power.  She also highlighted the top two quadrants.  There is often too much emphasis on building capacity of people with lived experience to take power, she said, and not enough on looking at ourselves. Reflective practice, and dialogue with those with less power, is vital too.  This new framework encourages us to look at shifting exclusionary cultures, including hidden codes and exclusionary networks and alliances.

In breakout groups, points made included:

• Taking power starts with oneself and one’s own organisation, including our own assumptions and beliefs, which can be self-limiting.  Perceived power is important. There is a dangerous narrative of finite power which can be self-restricting.  

• Being reflective about the different types of power, whether power over, power within, power for, or power to, helps create a greater consciousness and can be enabling.

• We need to ask the question ‘why’ rather than accept current assumptions; and listen deeply to those who are effectively silenced in society and act upon what is learnt.  We must make sure that the power we hold is genuinely working for, not against those we serve. Power ‘for’ is about creating a shared purpose and common values, and will have a really strong ‘why’. When it works well, it makes it easier to create self-organising teams within an organisation, as well as to provide a strong sense of external purpose and power.

• Governance, systems and processes, including regulatory requirements, can be disempowering to both staff and communities, for example by taking away autonomy for staff or placing restrictions on how communities naturally work.  

• Culture can be a significant bar to building social power within and across sectors, with an example given of a large company attempting to work with the social sector but with difficulties in both sectors in understanding each other’s culture and language. It can also lead to ‘group think’, with people gravitating to people like themselves rather than people who challenge their assumptions.

• Power imbalances, for example between professionals and those they work with, need to be recognised, and can get in the way of people realising their own power and agency because they defer to what they see as greater knowledge or are dependent on them to unlock further help. Professionals and organisations need to be aware of this and ‘gently hand the ball back’.  Sharing power takes trust on both sides, and is a continuous process which has to involve all levels of the organisation.

• Abuses of power are being used very effectively to bully certain groups, for example through racism, or attacks on the power of social sector, and need to be called out. 

• The social sector should be setting standards, being the best it can be internally, as well as making the best happen. It needs to challenge and call out the abuse of power in a way that is safe and effective while also getting our own house in order.

Overall, the reaction to SMK’s new tools was extremely positive and we thanked them for their contribution to the discussion.  SMK’s slides were circulated after the event and information about their social power project is available here.

The next meeting of the cell on 5 May will consider look at how to create inclusive platforms and encourage unheard voices through authentic voices.