The Great Game of Power was originally developed by Augusto Boal, as part of his "Theatre of the Oppressed" approach to working with and empowering various disenfranchised communities in Brazil and Peru. Oppression exists in many forms, and does not only affect poor, underprivileged people. We can observe many levels of oppression in large organizations today, amongst middle class, well paid professionals. Games of power are played out daily - often with great zest within the upper echelons, but with ever-dwindling willingness as we move down towards the grass roots of an organization. The oppression that takes place is sometimes conscious, but more often is "just the way we do things around here". It is usually hidden beneath the niceties of corporate behavior, beneath "socially acceptable" norms. In the oppressed people it takes the form of silent compliance, the fear of making mistakes (CYA) and a general sense that it is better to make no decisions than to make the wrong one. The result of this corporate oppression is inertia: it is stagnation. If this oppression is not recognized for what it is, it cannot possibly be surfaced and dealt with. An organization groaning under the burden of such oppression can never be agile, no matter how many nice facades it puts on itself.

A Great Game of Power workshop teaches participants, through interactive role-play, situation enactment and visual imagery, how to see oppression for what it really is; solutions emerge through the activities, and participants learn that there are actions that can be taken to change the status quo.

Participants

The workshop is aimed at anyone, in any role, at any level of an organization who is involved in an agile transition. It is intended for those who recognize that becoming agile, is not a quick makeover, but a deep cultural change. Participants should be willing to go a step or two beyond their personal safety limit.

Process

There is an old Chinese proverb that goes something like this: "Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember, but involve me and I'll understand". I believe the deepest learning comes from involvement, from being physical. The workshop format is a series of interactive exercises, each one building on the learning of the previous ones, with the aim of immersing the participants in the experience; participants will learn from re-evaluating their own experiences, and sharing in the experiences of others. The facilitator is merely a guide.

The session will be structured (roughly) in the following way:

• Introduction to Boal, and the method of working.
• Introductory exercise: Power Sculpture. Participants use objects in the room to create a "sculpture" where the objects are in different power relationships to each other, reflecting the participants’ own concept of power. The placing of the objects, and who places them is always significant. Dialog may follow each change, but sometimes the image is so clear that little needs to be said. This exercise introduces the method of working, but does not yet call on participants to be physically involved.
• Physical warm up exercises. These are not hopping and jumping exercises, but rather physical explorations. The intention here is to free the body from its habitual behaviors, to recognize its possibilities and limitations, in preparation for the exercise that follow.
• Image Theatre. This starts with Physical Power Sculpture, the same idea as Power Sculpture except that the objects are now the participants themselves. The sculptor "speaks" through the images he/she has created using the bodies of other participants. This builds up into an exercise called Take the Power, where participants add themselves into the image, attempting to take the power away from the person or persons currently holding it. The need for discussion lessens in this game, as the images speak for themselves.
• Forum Theatre: The images come alive, scenarios emerge. The participants’ own experiences of power relationships and oppression are explored through role play. Any participant can take over any role at any time and change the story, to explore different ways changing the dynamics, and thus the outcome.
• Debrief: there are ongoing debriefs throughout the session, and a final one at the end. There will also be a final relaxation/closure exercise.

The Goal

The goal of this session is a heightened awareness of the patterns of power and oppression that exist within corporations, and an understanding that such situations can be changed - even (or maybe especially) by those with no apparent power.