Test your Defining of your position of power

The doings of power provide the raw material for many a conversation. But what is power really? And how is power constructed? Our world identifies certain individuals as having power and then proceeds to make them more powerful by talking about them in the media. Politicians, high profile business leaders, characters from the entertainment industry and those frequently in the public eye are typical examples of ‘powerful people’.

To grok what power is, we need to look at influence (From Latin in, in or into, and fluo, flow) is to affect, modify, or act upon by physical, mental, or moral power, especially in some gentle, subtle, and gradual way. Most are influenced to some extent by public opinion; influence is chiefly used of power acting from without, tho it may be used of motives regarded as forces acting upon the will.

The concept of power is particularly interesting in Change Management and KM because in the context of organisations, power can do many things. It can speed things up, slow things down, alter trajectory, transform our understanding of ‘what is going on’ and even divert attention and focus to something altogether different.

An important aspect of power is that it is assumed – people assume you have power (or not). You take on or assume power. You assume that others have it (or don’t as the case may be). And you even assume that you have power. Power is always up for grabs.

We each have some measure of power and your position of power could be defined by:

• Knowing what you want – having a clear vision of your goal.
• Authority over the way others perceive you and what they say about you (Control over “the story”)
• The way you talk and think about yourself.
• Your choice of language and metaphors.
• Understanding what Influence is and how it works
• Control over the money (and the pincodes 😉 )
• Awareness and control over the story (are you in your own story or someone else’s story?)
• Ability to mete out brutality and violence in all its forms (such as withholding sex and intimacy, firing, physical punishment, active / passive aggression / restrictions, etc.)
• Knowledge / Know-How
• Freedom of choice
• Your ability to sacrifice / let go / move on / forget the past
• Your ability to learn, forget & pay focused attention for extended periods
• Access to powerful, interesting people in positions of power (who are as smart or smarter than you are)
• Know-how to access to information that will help your get what you want
• The ability to discern useful information from exformation/irrelevance
• The ability to tell a good story that arouses emotion in others
• Access to the internet and an interest in communication & networking technology
• Access to software tools that enable you to stay current and in touch with thought leadership from diverse fields
• Having a good story to tell
• Your preparedness to experiment and try new things
• The ability to network powerfully with the people with whom you desire to network.
• Timeframes of your visions and strategies – how far into the future does your story go? (tip: Long Timeframe contains a sense of greater power than than visions with short timeframes)
• The scary stories people tell about you, particularly tales of what you have done in the past / the mythologies of violence you have enacted
• The ability to make people uneasy or frightened and your ability to be unpredictable & ruthless (you might be able to do this better than you think!)
• The ability to criticize and dress down someone in front of an audience and getting away with it
• Your ability to actively work and play with your own metaphors
• Keeping up with and creating new metaphors and jargon
• The ability to say NO and to absolutely, positively mean it.
• The ability to be meta-systemic and fluid
• Demonstrated mastery in more than one field of expertise

Resource on influence https://www.synonyms.com/antonyms/Influence

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