Episode 24: Collective Power
In Episode 23, Marti and Todd spent most of the hour discussing what power is not—our misconceptions and fears around power. In this discussion, they explore the relationships and experiences of being people of power.
What does it mean to be in a state of collective power? What does it feel like? What are the needed conditions?
From the Edge: The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Accountability (Todd)
Series: People of Power
What if we think of power as potentiality and capacity, deeper than just the ability to act? Capacity—“to be able”—speaks more to a state of being. This power involves the capacity to act from an inner resource—an inner energy or knowledge—that has an expressive ability larger than itself. Potentiality and capacity suggest a fertile force that might spark germination and growth, not just the action of a force pushing on things.
In this series we explore what it means to be a person of power—one who stewards the process, rather than controlling it. One whose identity is so well grounded that s/he is completely part of life. People of power are leaders who impact the world significantly without effort and striving.
Photo by Anna Shvets
Timeline
1:13 Marti introduces the topic of collective power
7:14 What do we mean by “collective?”
10:13 Principle of complementarities
12:33 Relationships of equivalence
17:41 Nature and knowing our gifts
20:59 Starting with vision
24:31 Belonging and power
32:25 “Working on” doesn’t always work
35:14 When we close ourselves off from feeling
38:21 Experiencing power in the collective
42:37 Wedding in the woods
45:16 From the Edge: The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again (Marti)
55:01 Conscious Rant: Accountability (Todd)
1:00:25 Takeaways
Quotes
“Power is given to us—that's the indigenous understanding. It's not something we own.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Indigenous people speak of becoming people of power. They don't mean becoming a person who wields power over others to control them—that would be antithetical to the principle of collectivity; it's against everything we're seeking. What they really mean is that making relationship with the larger powers of life.” — Marti Spiegelman
“The indigenous understanding how power really works is that we gain appropriate power by connecting to it, receiving it, and being informed by it, not by taking it and wielding it.” — Marti Spiegelman
“If we're really understanding power, we come to know that the individual and the collective are inseparable. The only way we can survive and thrive—even as unique individuals expressing our gifts to the fullest—is by living in membership in the larger collective of life.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Nothing exists outside of a system.” — Janine Benyus
“Equivalence—equal power with different job descriptions; maybe even equal influence with different job descriptions. This is a key technology for igniting and keeping collectives vibrant and growing.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Our uniqueness exists beyond description, and definitely beyond quantifiable categories. I don't know if an algorithm can find our complementarities.” — Todd Hoskins
“Rather than working so hard to find who you are, ask the question ‘whose you are?’” — Kevin Fong
“You have to remember that you belong. We all belong to the earth, to the rivers, to the lakes, to the forests. We belong to one another.” — Don Manuel Quispe
“When we try to use thoughts to replace experience, we're going in the wrong direction.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Our awareness is working in a part of our consciousness that is in full acceptance of what is—that is in full relationship with incoming data, full relationship with our working partners. Everything is present and being worked with.” — Marti Spiegelman
“When we start to feel scarcity, our awareness has drifted to a tinier part of our human consciousness that is designed to look at either/or. It's designed to choose only one thing and not everything at once. But if all of our awareness ends up in that part of our processing brain, then we only see the world as, ‘I can only have this and not the rest.’” — Marti Spiegelman
“The memory of our collectivity lives within us. Even in the complicated, messy, broken up Western world, every human being has this memory, this knowing, this capacity.” — Marti Spiegelman
“That new world we’re longing for is already here, and we could just have it – by being it – and this may be one of the most powerful ways we could express what leading from being really is.” — Marti Spiegelman
“If we bring our attention back to the center of awareness it’s easy to see WE are holding the stick that has the carrot at the end. And we can just put the stick down, grab the carrot, and eat it.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Life creates conditions conducive to life.” — Janine Benyus
“When most people talk about accountability, we automatically assume there is some combination of authority—someone to answer to, policies, rules, and/or objectives—clear expectations, and enforcement—rewards and punishments.
Can you feel the coercion and control within this model? There is an implied finger pointing, as if saying, ‘Hey you down there. You need to be held accountable.’” — Todd Hoskins
“The weakness in the dominant view of accountability is that it thinks people can be held accountable. That we can force people to be accountable. Despite the fact that it sells easily, it is an illusion to believe that retribution, incentives, legislation, new standards, and tough consequences will cause accountability.” — Peter Block
“There is a different model of accountability that is horizontal rather than vertical. In this view, the commitment and relationships between team or community members is what sustains the accountability rather than pressure from above.” — Todd Hoskins
“Accountability arises from the commitment of the members, and increases with shared purpose, trust, and a flow of quality interactions between them.” — Todd Hoskins
“Accountability is the willingness to care for the well-being of the whole.” — Peter Block
“Collectivity is a state of being in relationship for the common purpose of thriving. Within that state of relationship—this thing that we call accountability—people take care of one another. People do their job because the whole thing requires it.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Stop thinking about collectivity as a human enterprise.” — Todd Hoskins
Links
Credits
Theme music courtesy of Cloud Cult