Imagine if Power Literacy Was the Norm

stewarding transformation the future of work May 02, 2024
What if Power Literacy was the Norm?

 

It's Wayfinding’s 8th Birthday!!!

Approximately sometime between April 16 and April 30, 2016 this organization officially began.

How wonderful and weird because in child years Wayfinding would be a second grader, in startup years it’s no youngster, and in years since 2020 Wayfinding is 392 😂.

Whatever the frame, I’m proud of this creation and the honor of getting to channel, weave, nurture, and steward this body of work with and for YOU.

Being with you in community and service is such a huge source of fuel for me!

As is listening to what Wayfinding is and what it wants to become.

It’s constantly teaching and transforming me and I get the front row seat to see how it transforms others.

 


 

This past year and half has been wildly transformative for me personally and for the evolution of Wayfinding — so this Wayfinding birthday comes at a turning point.

 

The coalescing and emergence of the 3 new foundational offerings of Wayfinding (the Power Assessment for Leaders, Power Initiation for Leaders, and Regenerative Power Embodiment Immersion) are the fastest, most distilled ways I’ve learned to onboard others to the skills of power literacy and regenerative power embodiment.

My own growth and the potency of these offerings was uniquely mirrored to me earlier this Winter when my longest-term/most-engaged alum joined the RPE immersion.

She’s worked with me since 2016, doing coaching and every offering I’ve ever created.

I shared with her that I’m at a new octave than when she last worked with me.

At the end of RPE in February, here’s what she said:

“Larissa I can't even describe the OMG that is my seeing of the difference in a you that was already mindblowing to me.”

This was a powerful full-circle moment and reflection having journeyed with her through the years.

 

On this 8th Wayfiding birthday, I want to share some inspiring visions for the world of work and our world at large from the RPE Winter 2024 alums who now know what I mean by regenerative power embodiment. 

These courageous folks know that learning the embodied skills of power literacy can be SO WEIRD at first, like when learning to ride a bicycle, but then the body catches on and it becomes thrilling.

At the end of their training, when they had this newfound sense of what regenerative power embodiment entails, I asked them to imagine what would be possible for them and the wider world if everyone had these skills.

Here’s what they had to say to these questions.

 


 

Imagine if you were deeply fluent in Power that Serves the Whole (PSW) and Shadow Power (SP) in embodied ways — what would become possible?

 

  • I’m brought back to the original phrase I used about spontaneous potency. It’s like that ninja that has also been named. Regardless of context, I feel I’d be capable, poised, and graceful in spontaneous potency.

  • Feeling more capable and energized to just do more. And I mean to consume and absorb more information, more relationships, more emotional and social input. Receiving that all and letting it flow through me as well as knowing how to direct it at work or in life.

  • “I’ve always had a lot of magnetism where people put me in leadership positions, and I’ve shrunk from them. When I’m in my highest PSW there’s Positional Power and Operational Power where I’m running something big. It’s exciting and feels like being in flow. The first thing that came to me is when I step back from my SP I see other possibilities. You have more creative possibilities."

  • That to me feels like the path of idea becoming reality. The possibility for vision to walk swiftly into implementation and being because it’s enabled by this lack of SP and strengthening of PSW. I know from experience there’s magic that happens when people are in that space. You seed an idea and it takes off and has a life path of its own.

 


 

 Imagine if everyone in your work and life were fluent in PSW and SP — what would become possible?

 

  • I feel like the possibilities are endless. I can’t list them. It’s so creative, so much energy reclamation from all the times we inhibit ourselves.”

  • "Probably a more empathetic world, better communication for sure, and more intentional collaboration when you know how power from others are actually adding attributes to your own power and helping you to overcome those shadows, I think magic happens. More intentionality in growing together and building community regardless of all the differences we are seeing in today’s world. I think magic happens.

  • Can you imagine in government if we were all in PSW? We’d get so much done! Because I was in a meeting yesterday watching Shadow Powers fighting for 4 hours. It was wild. WOW, you could really make some big change and have people all across government working in their PSW.” (*from a government employee)

  • “When I think about how f*ed up politics are in our country right now and to me this seems like a huge opportunity if someone fluent in PSW & SP ran for office.

  • “There would be world peace.”

 


 

Hmmmm, maybe there’s something going on here.

Maybe all this regenerative power stuff isn’t “outside of work” 😂.

Maybe it’s actually the taproot or the foundational layer for our best work.

Because by doing THIS, work is actually easier.

And life gets really fun.

 

So what if we did this at work in parallel with our outer work?

I invite you to imagine the possibilities because I can already see them.

In the wins from my executive coaching clients, the bids for power from program alums, and the insatiable longing for folks trained in power literacy to get jobs and build orgs centered around this shared skill, it's breathing to life.

 

Thanks for being by this fire with me.

If you want to come closer, there’s plenty of room.

 

Happy Birthday Wayfinding and thanks to all you Wayfinders!

 



Ps. If you want to join the next cohort of the Regenerative Power Embodiment Immersion, I just opened enrollment. It’s taking place May 22, May 29 & June 5. Join to get those fun new bicycle-riding-esque power skills!

 

 

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