Learners will have read that to manage at all, one must have power and use it to get things done. Are there really ways to manage without power? Most likely, there are not. The fundamental question is: Are you ready to manage the work of others? To be ready means they are mentally disposed to manage with power. If so, they will pursue becoming able to manage with this power as a personal goal, not just an instructional goal of your course. Here is an original exercise by which learners may informally assess their own current receptivity to ideas for “powering up.” 

Questions:

1. Been there, done that. Been there, won’t do that. Each of the Key Terms in this chapter has power cracking in it. They describe people behaving in organizations to have things go their way. 

2. Learners may do this exercise privately and write general lessons learned, if you wish. However, dynamics that are more memorable will come if they do this with others. 

3. Form pairs. Have learners place the chapter’s list of key terms in front of them. 

4. Instruct them to take turns addressing at least five to ten of the key terms of their choosing. 

a. They have to say, “Been there, done that/will do that,” or “Been there, won’t do that,” and why. 

b. In order to say why, they have to tell of an instance where they have, in fact, “been there.” 

c. For example, they choose the term organizational politics. One tells of a moment when they were the victim of an act of this sort and conclude, “Won’t do that.” The other may then happen to think of a moment when organizational politics broke a logjam and freed resources to get something new and better done. “Will do that” is this person’s marker. 

d. Ask the pairs to keep a running tally on each Key Term of “Wills” or “Won’ts.” Give them the last 3-5 minutes to stop and go over their tally and talk about what it seems to reveal about their current readiness to manage with power. 

5. Call time. Have a list of the Key Terms on the board or on an overhead slide, so that you can tally columns of Wills or Won’ts. 

6. Lead the class in general discussions of what they have discovered in this information experiment. What new inclinations do they have about the role power is and should be playing in their organizational lives?