BIG Questions Institute Update

June 13, 2026, No. 199 (Read Online)
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Where is your power?​
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Last Friday, at the end of a long week (month and year!) my sister and I sat outside a New York City bistro and spontaneously clinked glasses to toast: “Here’s to power.” Only slightly sarcastic, we knew what we meant: Very clearly not the power that makes the headlines, but the quieter power of tenacity, resilience, expertise, stewardship, and “loving detachment.”

Her work is very different from mine, but we face similar challenges to personal and organizational power everyday - as do so many of you. As I look back on a packed year with thousands of conversations utilizing our 12 Big Questions framework, one “big question” keeps coming up: Where is the Power? and it’s making people uncomfortable.

Questions of power show up at school in many ways:

• When teachers and school leaders get excited about a change initiative, then pull back because they think “the parents” or the system (i.e., universities, their Boards) would never let them pull it off.
• When Superintendents and Heads of School see what’s making students come alive, but default to old structures in a strategic plan because they worry that teachers and staff already have too much on their plates and couldn’t take on something new or challenging.
• When demanding parents reflect on “What is sacred?” (i.e., what would you fight to keep, what matters most at your children’s school?) they readily share that relationships, connection, cultivating curiosity, creativity, joy, and critical thinking are most sacred (and never mention test scores, grades, college admissions, tech, homework, etc. in their anonymous feedback), yet universally (and really, universally, from Switzerland to Shanghai to St. Louis) there’s a concern that they must “play the game” of test scores, etc. so their child is not left out of the competitive game, even though that’s not what shows up on what’s sacred or what they know drives their child.
• When leadership opportunities arise or strategic conversations need to happen and key individuals with outlier voices (including students) are not invited in because they would slow down the decision-making or introduce uncomfortable truths. Likewise, when great ideas arise from the margins and either aren’t acknowledged or credited.
• And so many more cases - what have you seen?

Who has the power?

These examples reflect the many lost opportunities that occur under a sense of powerlessness as well as conditions that impede belonging. Research affirms a “powerlessness paradox” – that feeling powerless can lead people to support systems that disadvantage them. Furthermore, when powerful people also are ambivalent (i.e., holding simultaneously conflicting emotions, attitudes or choices such as excitement about a new initiative and terror of the added responsibility), power can increase the likelihood of inaction. These findings help explain so much lack of initiative in schools, even when the right path is pretty clear.

As so many have expressed a general sense of power-less-ness, I keep thinking of a scene for the trailer of Future Council, the latest from filmmaker and story-teller Damon Gameau. I was inspired by Damon, a fellow keynoter at the UNLEASHED conference in Perth, Australia last month. At a time when the majority of young people around the world experience climate anxiety, the Future Council offers an antidote by documenting learning and action, coupled with mentorship and genuine respect for the young people involved.

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One scene in the film trailer briefly shows a confrontation the kids from the Future Council have with the CEO of Nestle, the world’s third largest plastic polluter and by all accounts one of the most powerful corporations on the planet. When confronted, the Nestle CEO indicates that he is essentially power-less to take significant climate responsibility that the young people demand. The youth don’t hold back in expressing their fury over his unwillingness, which he seems to express as a personal powerlessness. They tell him “You’re not a powerful leader. You’re a disgrace.” Watching that scene it’s really clear who has the power (at least in that moment) - it’s the kids.

I’ve witnessed this sense of powerlessness assumed among the “powerful” – C-suite leaders in Big 5 consulting firms, university leaders, parents of children attending prestigious schools who are able to pay 5- and 6-figure tuition fees and hold power and privilege in their cosmopolitan locales, leaders of “top” K-12 prep schools, and even the politicians.

Trends among the billionaire class are instructive (and frustrating, infuriating…). While they build bunkers in New Zealand to shield themselves from catastrophe, they are signaling their lack of moral responsibility and acting more as victims of circumstance than powerful actors with agency (and means) to create widespread, meaningful change. This is classic “learned helplessness.”

If all these people don’t have (or perceive, or act with) agency (power), who does? Taking a cue from students that speak truth to power and reinforced by the research, I’m convinced that we each have much more power than we realize. The Nestle CEO offers a lesson in a roundabout way: If even he feels powerless, that’s not a reason for me to feel even less power, but to realize that I have something to offer, and don’t need to feel intimidated or less-than because of my position, prestige, or paycheck. He might be unwilling to confront the polarities he faces and make values-aligned choices but that is not because he cannot. He chooses not to.

This choice offers an invitation to a conversation on power we must stop avoiding.

Be More Mycelium

If we’ve been in a room together this year, you probably heard me mention nature as a powerful teacher or guide.

One of the many lessons I carry comes from mycelium networks – the vast, hidden underground network connecting tree to tree beneath the forest floor, like nature’s internet or “wood wide web”. These networks are busy:

• connecting plant and tree roots
• decomposing organic matter
• facilitating the exchange of nutrients, and
• enabling communication between organisms to sustain entire forest ecosystems.

Like the ecosystem, schools do not survive or thrive because of the tallest tree. They survive because of the strength of what’s usually unseen. In other words, power doesn’t come from one individual with prestige but from cooperating, connecting, and even letting go of (composting) what no longer serves us. Flourishing is a reflection of the strength of the inner, invisible network.

The lessons from mycelium have amazed me all year, so it was a sweet and pleasant surprise to visit the Green School in Bali this spring and discover their new mascot, “Mycelium”. This really got me thinking, how might we not only learn from mycelium but be more like mycelium? That’s quiet power.

Unleash Your Power

If we want to see change in our schools and systems, we must recognize where we have power and how we can use it.

This starts with confronting what blocks change. Name the barriers, unpack how we got here, explore paths forward, and consider allies, champions and how you’ll build further support. If a diverse group of stakeholders confront the blockages, the chance of doing something power-ful goes up. I see this when I speak to groups of parents. The presentation might get people excited, but the real work starts when I leave. If the parents and school community stay connected, build deeper ties, facilitate exchange of knowledge, confront and compost anxieties and practices that don’t serve children, the change they can create is real. This work also clearly mirrors what mycelia do.

Lovingly Detach

In my coaching work this year I’ve also learned another lesson about power. I inadvertently recommended a client “lovingly detach” from the outcome of a challenging process and it helped her build inner power to then construct a different and favorable outcome. What I meant by loving detachment is this: Try your best. Throw in your all. Care deeply. But after you’ve done all you can, you mentally and emotionally detach yourself from the outcome. This stance takes a cue from “radical acceptance” (embrace what has become, whether you agree with it or not - flow with it and look for new opportunities and solutions that help you cope and grow), and loving kindness practice. For my coaching client it resulted in a feeling of liberation from the outcome, then the freedom to be creative and not hold on to disappointment. In a sense, she got some of her power back.

Be In Your Power

Don't avoid questions of power and how it might be harnessed. As you confront it, also ask, what does it take to “be in your power”?

Power isn’t antithetical to service, humility or care. In fact, when I’ve been in my power, I feel I can practice these dispositions more abundantly. Power shows up in how we metabolize truths, confronting what’s hard, cultivating our inner core, talking to folks we agree and even disagree with, and taking action toward something meaningful. Action can look like stepping away or stepping up, even if the steps seem small. Where people keep moving forward, to do what they can with what they have and who’s present, the perception of power, and closely tied to this - hope - is much greater.

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In power and with hope,

Homa
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Still Looking for Governance, Leadership or Strategy Support for 2026-27?

At the Big Questions Institute we have a full and exciting roster of schools and leadership teams engaging with us next academic year, and some brilliant additions to our team, like Elizabeth Walker Sobhani and James MacDonald (during his sabbatical year). If you have any project, professional learning, or other engagement needs, please don't hesitate to reach out: info@bigquestions.institute, or directly to Homa: homa@bigquestions.institute.