Doubt powers me forward
Like many middle children I spend a lot of time thinking about power. Actually, let me rephrase that. Like many strategy and organisation development consultants, I spend a lot of time thinking about power; who has it? who doesn’t? where is it growing, reducing? where is it hard, where is it soft? Structural, systemic or individual?
I think I can say with confidence I’ll never get bored of the topic. And at risk of over-simplifying the textbooks, for me, understanding power – not least your own – is – kind of – everything. I remember at the height of #MeToo conversations a friend expressing her irritation that her (late middle-aged, male) boss didn’t get it. ‘What’s wrong with a little office flirting? It makes work more fun…’. Well, yes. And yet, no. Depends on who’s involved, the structure and the system. As Bill Clinton famously didn’t say, ‘it’s power, stupid...’ (Note, one function of power, you get to use the word stupid – about other people). Two peers flirting at the coffee machine; possibly OK. Senior (in age and hierarchy) man ‘flirts’ (sexually harasses?) young woman in the bar after work; probably not OK.
Google ‘power’ and you’ll get the French & Raven five sources of power (or six; the final one ‘informational’ was a late addition):
1. ‘Legitimate’ power – the type the makes you think ‘this person has the right to make this demand of me’ (or of the system);
2. ‘Reward’ power – comes from the fact that I can compensate you (financially or otherwise) for doing x, y or z – at my direction;
3. ‘Expert’ power – from skills and knowledge;
4. ‘Referent’ power – basically, if we think someone is considered valuable or worthy by others, we give them power; and
5. ‘Coercive’ power – I think of this as the opposite of reward power – just as you can be rewarded, you can be punished.
Informational power was an important addition. Those who control the information flow… well I’m writing this just as it’s been confirmed that Elon Musk is buying Twitter, you know the rest.
But I’ve been reflecting on when I feel powerful and I don’t think these dimensions cut it. There’s another source I’ve been reaching into as I’ve hit 50, let’s call it – doubt power. I’m starting to feel that it might be doubt that powers the most interesting conversations and shifts. It might be doubt that recognises complexity and stops us from thinking that life’s challenges are Rubik’s cubes to be solved, rather than difficult situations in which what matters is the small shift forwards. And with this instinct, I’ve realised I really want to understand doubt better – how does it relate to power – and to privilege; can doubt, rather than certainty, be a tool for dismantling the old and building the new?
So, for now, I’m tentatively embracing it: doubt power. To power me through into my second half century. If you’re interested in this journey, connect with Ksenia Zheltoukhova and me through LinkedIn – and in 2023 we’ll be launching a study to get into this further - watch this space.
Final words go to Hilary Mantel, one of my favourite writers, who died a short time ago:
“He never sees [Thomas] More… without wanting to ask him what’s wrong with you? Or what’s wrong with me? Why does everything you know, and everything you've learned confirm you in what you believed before? Whereas in my case, what I grew up with, and what I thought I believed, is chipped away a little and a little, a fragment then a piece and then a piece more. With every month that passes, the corners are knocked off the certainties of this world: and the next world too..” {Wolf Hall, Chapter III, highly recommended!}
