How Much Power Do We Have?
What power do humans have and what power do we think we have? As leaders these are crucial questions to wrestle with as we intentionally seek to build cultures where power is used to help rather than harm. Within my work I aim to empower those we support, so that they feel equipped to create new chapters in their lives and reshape their perspectives on past experiences. Power is a subject that I think is vital to bring out of the spaces where it is hidden, where denial and insecurity are normalised, and abuse can be overlooked and ignored. Power can destroy or heal, and power can empower others or silence others. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.’[1] How much power do we have over our thinking, our processing, our subconscious and our world?
Walker asserts that our lack of power over our automatic reactions in our System 1 can cause internal and external conflict.[2] Kahneman suggests that whilst we cannot directly control this primitive reaction, we can have influence over it through habits, reflection and intentional practice[3]. Rock reminds us of the long history of philosophers writing about ways to control the mind, with one famous metaphor of the elephant and the rider, ‘where the conscious will, the rider, tries to control the larger and uncontrollable unconscious mind the elephant.’[4] Rock explores how much power we do have to facilitate change but also how many limitations we have to juggle the many demands of modern leadership life.
The prefrontal cortex is an extraordinary area of the brain, which when it is functioning with ease, can enable humans to think, reflect, process and make sensible decisions. However, it can lose neural energy when threat is detected, or information is overwhelming and not managing to be processed fast enough. It can be life transforming for victims of crime to realise that their prefrontal cortex and therefore their ability to be reasonable, rational and reflective is essentially overruled by the primitive brainstem that instinctively uses fight, flight or freeze to survive. Many survivors feel shame that they didn’t do something to stop the crime until they understand this automatic neurobiological process that overruled their rational responses in order to keep them alive.[5]
One area in the prefrontal cortex that sits behind the right and left temples can inhibit many types of responses. It’s called the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex or the VLPFC and ‘when you inhibit a motor response, a cognitive response, or an emotional response, this region becomes active.’[6] This area is part of the braking system of the brain which then enables humans to focus and concentrate by using methods to calm regions of the brain that may be triggered or overwhelmed. Mindfulness or bilateral stimulation can move the brain from heightened brainstem and amygdala activity to calm thinking where there is an ability to make sense of the emotional and automatic reaction that occurred.
Therefore, neuroscience suggests that humans do have some power to help themselves move between different states and take control of some aspects of their internal, backstage, System 1, unconscious or subconscious life systems. Rock encourages us by reminding us that ‘it is attention itself that changes the brain.’[7] What situations then render someone powerless to the automatic reactions of the brain? We recognise that during a dangerous event, experience or life there are survival regions of the brain that get the immediate reaction and hormonal attention that enables the person to stay alive. The overactive brainstem and limbic system including an over enlarged amygdala can keep a person in hypervigilance and terror of what could happen next, causing them to be less rational or reflective and highly sensitive to stimuli that subconsciously reminds them of past threat. This template can be updated with enough repetition to rewire the necessary limitations to aid survival and begin to stimulate other regions of the brain to aid recovery with new imagination, understanding and a reduction in shame.
Ultimately due to the understanding of neuroplasticity of the brain, it is widely recognised that we have more power than some think to facilitate change, but there are limitations that need to be noted. Rock highlights that ‘trying to change other people’s thinking appears to be one of the hardest tasks in the world.’[8] While domination and manipulation can be used to alter behaviour, and perhaps even thinking, such methods are neither ethical nor aligned with relational leadership styles. In a shepherd leadership model, these approaches are simply not an option.[9] Therefore, change can be facilitated when the person is empowered to slowly reflect and become self-aware in a way that can enable aha moments to be a possibility. Another limitation on the ability to change the brain and its function is the area of multi-tasking and juggling too many complex situations or decisions. Rock has shocking words that assert that ‘there appears to be real limits to the amount of information that can be held in the prefrontal cortex at any one time’ and ‘while you can obviously remember more than one thing at a time, your memory degrades for each item when you hold a lot in mind. Clearly this is a limitation worthy of respect.’[10] These lines will now become a small poster on my office wall because I feel like this year, I have made multi-tasking into a marathon during the winter months, and I never want to do this again.
[1] Luke 10:19 NIV
[2] Simon Walker. Leading Out of Who You Are. Piquant. Books.2007. 23.
[3] Daniel Kahneman. Thinking Fast and Slow. Penguin Books. 2012.14
[4] David Rock. Your Brain At Work. Harper Collins. 2020. 49.
[5] Betsy de Thierry. The Simple Guide to Child Trauma. 2017. 26.
[6] David Rock. Your Brain At Work. Harper Collins. 2020. 52.
[7] Ibid.226.
[8] Ibid. 220.
[9] Ibid. 220.
[10] Ibid. 22.
About the Author
Betsy
5 responses to “How Much Power Do We Have?”
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Hi Betsy,
Your post reminded me of a portion of Rock’s work where he quotes that we don’t seem to have free will as much as we do free won’t. The point seemed to me to be that we have the ability to inhibit responses we don’t want, rather than fully control them.
So, in this light (and you may even disagree with Rock’s position), my question for you is: what is power in this context? How would you define it?
Thanks Joff- great question. I think it depends if we are talking about the immediate, instinctive, automatic reactions to new stimuli or if we are talking about reactions to triggers of past experiences. I believe that we have little control or ‘a small window in which to inhibit a response’ as Rock says for new stimuli/ experiences/ encounters. But in experiences or sensory reminders of the past that we have made known by moving from the subconscious to the conscious, we have far more control and power because we can work to update information and knowledge about the current situation and essentially re-wire triggers. So an adult processing something like a time where they were hit by a teacher in a cold classroom may feel deeply disturbed around the cold and may not know why and they may feel terror if a woman near them lifts their arms up or looks the slightest bit angry. These could be tiny subconscious reactions that can be mostly ignored, but as time is taken to acknowledge and recognise the trauma memory, parts of the jigsaw come together to tell the story and those triggers can then become de sensitised with repetition. This leads to being able to have more control over the instinctive urge to run/ punch/ freeze and instead recognise its an old memory that is no longer relevant because you’re no longer a powerless child. But it doesn’t work with a new experience or stimuli that feels terrifying- so in those moments we as humans are more powerless, although if we have worked to be more aware of our subconscious and become familiar with the process, we can be faster at changing. Again that depends on how often the traumatic experience happened and at what age and how safe the person is now.
Does that make sense?
Yes, makes sense. Thanks for the reply.
If we had more time, my next questions would be about similar functions of power, will, and inhibition in interpersonal relationships between individuals or within groups. That could be a big and important conversation!
Betsy, I thought of you while reading Rock’s book and was anticipating your blog. This is your world, not mine, and I appreciate the experience you bring.
Multitasking is one of those things that belongs in Why We are Wrong About Nearly Everything. We all believe in our capability despite the factual evidence. With your two phone and seven accounts, etc., have you been able to change any habits to make space one-at-a-time rather than all at once? Does your staff help with this or hinder you?
Rich- I am a work in progress. This last seven months have been the worst in my life for memory and focus. I hadn’t planned to do this course until 2 days before it started and was unaware of the curriculum and as such my diary had no additional space. I have completed the work in hours that are not normal! I have been fascinated watching the contents of Rocks book take place and I have watched myself as I forget things I have taught for decades. I even suggested to my PA that I needed to quickly write a book on collective trauma and she smiled kindly and told me i had done that in 2021. It’s been fascinating but frightening too.
I am looking forward to the summer and we are currently making plans to have a new email system, a new phone number and new diary commitments and availability, because it has been awful but fascinating seeing my overwhelm and how that has impacted my brain, thinking, emotions and health. I feel entirely vindicated, supported and delighted in the words of this book around multi tasking and am grateful for it!