Reducing Power Gradients

Jade Garratt · Politics, Diversity & Equity, Power, Interpersonal Practice

Jade Garratt's practical guide to flattening the power gradient — in the practice's experience, the single most effective lever for increasing psychological safety. In practice this means two things: reducing the power held or overtly displayed by the most powerful, and increasing the power and influence of those with the least. The gradient goes by many names (power differential, authority gradient, cross-cockpit authority gradient, power distance, status asymmetry), and if power dynamics go unaddressed, most efforts to build PS are doomed; history, research and real-world disasters all show people don't speak up against steep gradients even when lives are at risk. It's ranked Number 1 of the Top 10 Ways to Foster Psychological Safety, and connects to HOP's point that steep gradients widen the work-as-imagined / work-as-done gap. Steep gradients flow from a 'power over' mindset; 'power with' (reciprocity) and 'power to' (enabling and liberating others) flatten them — an idea Mary Parker Follett articulated a century ago. The article's spine is three concentric rings of practice: micro (use names not ranks, ask questions in the spirit of Schein's Humble Inquiry, admit when you don't know, narrate your decision-making, give credit generously), meso (rotate chairing, round-robins and protected think-time, beware the HiPPO, rotate who speaks first, Lean Coffee), and macro (move authority to where the knowledge is, co-create rather than consult, hold open forums, redesign physical and virtual spaces to be egalitarian, turn the org chart on its side). Reducing gradients isn't erasing leadership; it's redistributing it so speaking up, ownership and decisions become shared rather than privileges reserved for a few.

Explore this node in the interactive map → Read the full article on psychsafety.com →

Reducing Power Gradients

Connected concepts (57)