Recently, I was appointed to facilitate an important discussion in an organization. The president of the organization could have conducted this series of meetings. He certainly has the ability, but he wisely decided not to do it himself and appointed someone who was—for all intents and purposes—powerless.
While I bring a certain expertise to the discussion, in this environment, I don’t have the power to command anyone in the group to do anything. This is wonderful for a number of reasons.
First, it forces me, as the facilitator, to ask rather than tell. In Humble Inquiry (#ad) and Humble Consulting, (#ad) Ed Schien argued that we only really get to the root of problems in organizations when consultants ask out of their own ignorance rather than walk in with a plan in hand.
Second, it allows me to admit my ignorance right up front.  I have expert knowledge in the general area, but I do not have expertise in the specifics as do the other participants in the room. Now, I could pretend to have expertise but  the real experts would see right through me.
Alternatively,  I could admit that I don’t know it all and that I have to rely on their understanding.  This latter course is both true and inviting. It brings guards down and allows participants to process their own thoughts more effectively.
Third, it levels the playing field. My presence is not nearly as threatening as it might be if I were a vice president or president who could command that my will be done. In more than twenty years of dealing with graduate students (mostly MBAs), I have never heard anything good happen when someone says, “Because I am the vice president, that’s why.”
In How Google Works, (#ad) Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company,  calls this a problem with HIPPOs. HIPPO stands for the “highest-paid person’s opinion” and he argues that where HIPPOs prevail, you’re not working in a meritocracy.
Finally, powerlessness saves me from making errors of intoxication. Lord Acton tells us that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  He is right. Over the years I’ve become much more aware of the ill-effects of power on those who are entrusted with it. It doesn’t take very much power at all to convert an otherwise reasonable person into a dictator.
I saw this on Christmas when my three-year-old girl received a full Elsa outfit (for those of you who do not know, she is the older Princess in the movie Frozen). This included a new dress, cape, hair clip and wig, earrings, necklace, bracelet, gloves, rings, and a crown. This little girl was the cutest thing you ever saw, but within the hour, I think she really believed that she was a princess and that we were her servants.
My powerless role, in contrast, saved me from making a similar mistake, and this is important, because power would have corrupted the process. It is counterintuitive, but I’m thankful for such powerlessness.
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Dr. Darin Gerdes is a tenured Professor of Management in the College of Business at Charleston Southern University.
All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
FTC Disclosure: When I refer to a book, I often add a link to Amazon (#ad) so you can purchase it easily. I may earn a few cents if you buy it, but I never recommend any books unless they are worth reading.
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