power Archives - Bhavana Learning Group

Power Dynamics, Part 2: Worldviews and Practices

What do all men with power want? More power. — Oracle, Matrix Reloaded

Is power bad, or is the need for power problematic?

Power is a matter of perspective, whether sourced in responsibility, purpose, or choice, or force, control, and results. Our perspective depends on our conditioning within society’s views of power and, culturally, how we internalize those views.

Before we unpack these layers of power, recall that Part 1 of this blog defined the following six dimensions of power: Legitimate, Expert/information, Reward, Coercive, Referent, and Influencer.

By Tony Zampella|2022-07-28T16:39:57-04:00July 12th, 2021|Blog|0 Comments

Power Dynamics, Part 1: Dimensions and Forms

Power may be one of the universal dimensions of the human experience. Analogous to energy in physics, power in humans can take several forms, such as wealth, armaments, influence, or knowledge.

To do just about anything — collaborate, lead, manage, co-create change, parent, learn, and even teach and coach (yes, teaching and coaching) — requires that we discern our relationship to power, then cultivate how to we wish to use it.

I begin this two-part blog on power by employing two broad definitions:

“Power is the capacity to produce intended effects” by Bertrand Russell (1938); and

Power is “the DOWNLOAD PDF

By Tony Zampella|2022-07-28T16:35:27-04:00June 14th, 2021|Blog|0 Comments

Brave Spaces or Safe Spaces to Support (un)Learning?

Safe Spaces. Seems people support or deride them. But what purpose do they serve, and for whom?

Generally, safe spaces offer sanctuary from risk, injury, and adversity—often resulting in polite spaces that avoid controversy and contradiction.

In some academic settings, safe spaces provide important refuge for isolated groups during significant learning years.

In business, however—where the notion of power must be mitigated and navigated—we require brave spaces, and for a very different reason.

The Perfect Team

Google spent two years investigating what makes a team successful.

Google’s initial hypothesis suggested that building the best possible team means simply compiling the DOWNLOAD PDF

By Tony Zampella|2022-09-26T14:09:08-04:00October 21st, 2019|Blog|1 Comment