EP 450: The Will to Share Power with Tania Luna

This is the final installment in Strange New Work, a series that uses speculative fiction to explore radical work futures.

Power. Some fear it. Others hoard it. Some with power speak softly. Others carry a big stick. Power is charisma, or coercion, or violence. Power is name recognition, or money, or computer code.

Regardless of your definition or perceptions of it, power plays a critical role in how we work.

Today, we explore power—what we can do with it, how we can grow it, and, critically, how we can share it—because power in the future of work will look very different than it does today.

Footnotes:

• Find out more about Tania Luna
• Lead Together by Tania Luna
• The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
• "The Lathe of Heaven" BBC film adaptation
• "Mary Parker Follett—Creativity and Democracy" by Gary M. Nelson in Human Service Organizations
• "There Is a Better Way to Use Power at Work. This Forgotten Business Guru Has the Secrets" by Matthew Barzun in Time Magazine
• "Content Decision Making" via Sociocracy For All
• Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• "A Band of Brothers, a Stream of Sisters" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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What is What Works?

Work is central to the human experience. It helps us shape our identities, care for those we love, and contribute to our communities. Work can be a source of power and a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, that's not how most of us experience work—even those who work for themselves. Our labor and creative spirit are used to enrich others and maintain the status quo. It's time for an intervention. What Works is a show about rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy. Host Tara McMullin covers money, management, culture, media, philosophy, and more to figure out what's working (and what's not) today. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.