It’s a morning in the near future. You sit down to work and take stock of what’s developed since the evening. The news headlines are much the same, but as you scan them, you are more aware of your own energy: steady and calm, grounded in purpose. Your heart is open to whatever comes up, even delight.
This is not how current economic, political and technological systems are designed to make us feel. If you are anxious and desperate, you’re in good company – but it is also useful to realize how feelings often tie back to what those systems teach us about who we are and how we fit into the world (for example, we’re useful based on how much we produce and consume). As the structures and institutions around us crack apart, in moments where we feel it’s nearly impossible to have an impact on the big picture, there is so much we still can create at a smaller scale. The cracks in the existing systems give opportunity to hold up and demonstrate other, more life-giving possibilities.
The free learning series: Inside-Out: Dismantling Authoritarianism in Ourselves & Our Work from NEW and Susan Loucks Consulting takes that opportunity, using examples from NEW’s own journey. NEW is deliberately uprooting traditional “power-over” practices inside the organization, examining everything from interviewing to compensation, and experimenting with what cultivates “power-with” behavior instead. Each segment has both a written and video exploration of one aspect of a culture that needs either to be built or broken down in order to build our desired future. We invite you and your own organizations to join us in this exploration:
Trust – Trust knits us together, and disconnected people are easier to control. Trust is built on transparency and predictability.
Sharing Power – Even when leaders want to share power, conditioned habits from people all over the organizational chart get in the way.
Compliance – Our goal is not rampant individualism, but a voice in making and changing the rules. We notice moments when we surrender our own agency and define other paths.
Fear – Patterns of white supremacy create fear both in our organizations and inside ourselves. Releasing that fear frees energy and makes room for healthy expressions of power.
Narrative Strategy – Control of the story is as central to authoritarianism as control of individuals. We take a look at ways not just to push back on one dominant story with another, but to allow many voices to tell their stories together.
Wholeness – Instead of an obligation to hide ourselves, we can create workplaces where we have the choice to reveal complex identities or emotions.
This work asks something deeply human of us: to resist the temptation to capitulate to oppressive systems, even when they offer the illusion of order, security, or status. These systems thrive on our exhaustion and co-opt our creativity, often inviting us to survive by conforming. But we are not here merely to survive. We are here to thrive and transform the future, together. To hospice what no longer serves us — extractive practices, power-hoarding, the myth of neutrality — and to midwife what’s next: workplaces and communities rooted in justice, dignity, and shared power.
This moment feels like labor. Messy, urgent, holy. Something new is trying to be born, and we’re all in it — groaning, stretching, unsure, but moving forward anyway. We have to breathe our way through it. We need each other to hold rhythm when it gets hard to stay in the flow. And we need spaces, like this series, to practice the future while we’re still inside the now.
We hope this is one of those spaces for you.
With care,
Yodit & Susan
