A love note from one of my beloved collaborators:
"In collaborating with his playful energies, powerful coaching tools, and guiding questions, Aayaan helped me recognize my power and voice in my writing practice and in my interactions.
He enabled me to expand my confidence and creativity, and redefine myself.
I began to see my scientific work not as my duty, but as the game I play in service of decolonization which helped me regulate my energies much more." - Neha
When you leave Take Your Power Back, I'm not going to 'teach' you anything.
Well, I'll teach you how to use my power quadrant, but that's it. ๐
Because I 100% believe that you are your own best teacher.
I might get a quick ego boost from preaching at you the way that we expect experts to. But I simply don't f with the boring western webinar model of talking and talking at your captive audience.
In my spaces, you gather rich insights from your own thinking and felt experience. I am but a clear mirror that reflects them back... and the crystal ball you use to see your path forward. ๐ฎ
Let's say a colleague has been slyly undermining your work for some time. He has been whispering about you. His words have cast a shadow on your reputation and fucked with your mental health. You think about inflicting pain on someone every time you have to interact with him. You'd like to take a stand for yourself, but you're not sure how to.
My power quadrant helps you figure it out.
First, you need to know exactly what kind of power imbalance exists between you and him.
Don't just have it in your head btw. Put it in writing. It is good practice.
Does your colleague have positional authority over you? That gives him more relational power in your dynamic, meaning it makes the terms of relating between you two unequal.
Going one step further, do you have some identities that you can't display at work... while your colleague's ethnic, class, caste, gender and other identities are perfectly 'normal' and subtly on display through his relationships? This means he currently wields more social power in your dynamic.
Now that you have in writing exactly which power dynamics are at the root of your problem... We're going to use this quadrant again, this time so that you shift the power dynamic and take a stand.
I'll show you how and we'll practice together.
Please join us on August 15 (Thursday) from 8:30-10 pm Delhi time. That's 5:00-6:30 pm Cape Town/Berlin time, 11:00 am - 12:30 New York time and 8-9:30 am Portland time on Zoom.
I have a goal to get 5 more folks before the workshop! ๐ค๐ฝ
Will you forward this email to a friend to help me meet my goal?
PS: When you shift power dynamics, you are a revolutionary engaging in revolutionary behaviour. Culture is a closely-guarded bundle of directives about how you are supposed to behave.
When you change behaviours (your own and others), you are changing oppressive cultures.
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