Power & Integrity is incubated within

Power lab learning

Key learning

The series of Power Lab workshops aimed to:

  • test and refine our assumptions about how power and integrity interact within purpose-led organisations
  • start to create tools for sharing openly

We created this online resource to share the key learning.

What we learned

Power Lab findings

Our four high-level findings were clear:

1Understanding power can enable a holistic and coherent approach to organisational integrity

88% of participants strongly agreed

2Leadership and Governance need to be engaged

66% FELT BOARDS SOULD BE ENGAGED AND 88% FELT eXECUTIVE LEVEL SHOULD BE ENGAGED

3There is a need for common language and understanding of organisational integrity and its relationship with power at a sector level

55% strongly agree and 33% somewhat agree

4Donors, regulators and other sector level actors have a role in supporting organisations to work with integrity

77% strongly agree

Stats are from the post-lab participant survey

‘We found the Power Lab to be incredibly helpful in starting a conversation within our organisation about power and integrity.’

Power Lab participant

‘The benefit of clarity of shared language: We assume people understand the same thing, but it’s not the case.

Participant

I agree about bringing together trustees, senior executives and practitioner roles.’

Board member lab participant

Sometimes the public and donors are rooted in different narratives from ourselves. We need to look for common values, not differences.

Participant

Our learning journey

Key learning by theme

The Power Lab provided us with a wealth of rich information to draw from. We have collated lab findings under four headings: integrity, power, leadership and sector. The key lessons learned are listed below, with links to more detailed information on the individual learning pages. It’s important to bear in mind that these are only preliminary findings, especially given the limitations of the PI team and participant diversity.

Integrity

  • The 3Ps Model provides a holistic overview of organisational integrity
  • Integrity is strengthened by aligning across organisational purpose, people and practices
  • An integrity-centred approach could also bring operational benefits
  • We understand organisational integrity as a set of emerging principles

Power

  • The power lens shows how power plays out in organisations
  • Organisations can unintentionally perpetuate the societal inequalities they aim to address
  • Different forms of inequality can shape similar behaviours of exclusion
  • Anti-oppression work must be intersectional
  • Learning about power is uncomfortable but necessary
  • Power analysis helps identify foundational steps towards organisational integrity
  • The Power Lens and 3Ps Model combined enable a coherent and integrity-centred approach

Leadership

  • Power-sensitive leadership is essential
  • Integrity requires representation of and strategic input from communities served and people with lived experience
  • Power-sensitive leadership requires self-awareness and personal development

Sector

  • The sector’s dynamics can undermine organisational integrity
  • Wider collaboration to enable organisational integrity is needed
  • Shared language and understanding of power and integrity is a helpful first step

Activities and tools

The learning pages include popups with descriptions of Power Lab activities and details of how we have started to develop and adapt tools to help organisations work towards integrity. The evolving set of tools will soon be available as a Power Toolbox.

Personal Reflection picture

Beyond the lab

Priority areas moving forward

Based on the Power Lab learnings, we are prioritising two approaches. These offer practical, informed support to organisations, while at the same time fostering wider movement building for a more just and equitable sector.

Professional Services

We work with organisations to develop a holistic understanding of how power dynamics influence their governance, operations and overall impact, while raising awareness across the sector.

We offer trusts, foundations and non-profit organisations an approach to understand their practices and impact, and to identify practical steps moving forward. We find that board engagement is vital to ensure the organisation’s formal power enables rather than undermines organisational integrity.

As a first step, we recommend a workshop to explore this, applying power analysis tools that we have adapted following research undertaken with organisations in the sector.  We also offer bespoke services, including strategic consultancy, training and coaching and we recommend other experts in the sector for specialist areas.

Movement Building

We support movement building and collaboration within the sector, participating in roundtables, talks and webinars. We will also continue to provide open access to our learning and evolving tools via our website. As a first step we are sharing the Power Lab learning.

We are an open source, non-profit organisation and are committed to meeting organisations where they are, providing a non-judgemental space to guide them in this important, specialised work.

Find out more about the PI initiative

Check out our media channels

We’re starting to explain more about PI at events and via blogs and other media channels. See what’s available on our news page.

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Get in touch

Do you want to know more about participating in the PI initiative? Perhaps you have a media enquiry or just a general enquiry about our work? If so, let us know.