Life in the Power LabAt The Power Lab, all attendees are segmented into three distinct social classes: immigrants, middles, and elites. Without giving too much away, your class significantly affects the quality of your life. From your lodging to meals to the kind of work you perform in society, there is a serious disparity in wealth from the elites to the immigrants. I was cast as a middle - the one who pays employees for wages and works to create new jobs to move the economy along. It's a seductive position, and one that I got into easily given my business background. It taught me a sort of discipline and forced me to keep track of accounts and... wait, this is just like my normal job!
That was the realization. Here I was in a social experiment, a laboratory for professionals to test new ideas about power, and I had fallen back into my old routines. Habit energies are very difficult to break away from. The day was so busy with running back and forth between the immigrants and elites that I forgot to experiment, to try new things. I was already building my resume in a world that only lasted a week - for what purpose? Was I going to interview for a new position in the Power Lab society? "Well sir, you can see by these numbers that I grew the economy by 30% creating new jobs in labor and entertainment..."
One thing I noticed is that the other middles also fell into their normal habits - most of us are middles in a way, not the ones who do the hard labor, nor the ones with all the resources, but the ones that control how resources flow. Talking back and forth between us, it seemed that most of the other middles were pretty happy with making small marginal changes: a few more jobs, slightly increased decision making authority, perhaps even a coffee maker in the middle housing.
Would a week of small negotiations and putting out fires, which is fulfilling yet completely stressful, really provide a benefit that I couldn't get outside of the lab? No, I thought. There must be something more to this. And indeed, this train of thought was the seed of revolution.
The immigrants, unlike the middles, were very united in their utter disdain for their poor living conditions. They did the hardest work, had few ways to blow off steam, could not directly petition the elites in any fair way, and were generally unhappy with the rate of progress the middles were providing them. If my frustration with the seduction of the middle position was the seed of revolution, the immigrants were the water and sunlight it needed to blossom.
Together with a select small group of immigrants, we hatched our plan. Create a bill of rights, rally all the immigrants under it, petition the elites with it, watch it get rejected, act out in response and receive even more draconian punishments, use this frustration to unite all the immigrants under the idea of a complete overthrow, and then we take the elite house! Only partway through the plan would the rest of the immigrants find out that they had a middle defector to orchestrate and help lead the revolution.
The Revolution Begins
The day of the revolution, we collected the day's wages and worked hard - but there was a knowing smile that things were about to change. During lunch, even the instructors taught about "power moves" and how groups can radically change their position in society. Things seemed to be going perfectly. However, as a Prussian general once said, "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy."
The elements we could control for, we did, and things mostly went according to plan. Though, slowly, elements within the immigrants grew too enamored with the plan and wanted to advance the revolution up. A coach hinted very strongly that the society exercise may end soon and that we may never get the chance to storm the elite house. And so, under serious pressure as the proposed early date for court was looming, we had an emergency meeting.
It was eventually decided that we would stage the revolution during the court session instead of after. Tough decision. The numbers of revolutionaries versus old guard was equal at court, but overwhelmingly in our favor at the house. We had a higher moral authority waiting until after our proposition was shot down, but if we interrupted the court session at the beginning, we could be sure all citizens get their rights. And so, we decided to go for it early.
The careful planning of revolution that played out over 24 hours was replaced with a new spur of the moment plan. At the sound of the gavel, all of us rose up with a fierce battle-cry and sprung into our plan. Keep in mind these folks are middle managers and executives at prestigious firms. Elites were detained, in cases even tied up, doors were locked shut, and chaos was everywhere.
Looking out at the crazy mess in front of me, I was both enthralled and disgusted. Revolution is really great when you're writing the bill of rights on paper, but pretty ugly when you start the fight for independence. In the struggle for control, two of the elites escaped.
We had captured the other elites and began to charge them with high crimes against human dignity. To all of the completely surprised middles, we explained our actions. The new constitution and bill of rights was read. After we charged the elites, we asked them if they had any preliminary statements in their defense. In one of the most powerful moments, one of them asked "Does it really even matter what we say?" In response, I said "Yes, it does. You will have access to a fair trial by jury - that's what this revolution was all about."
At this point, life was good. Aside from the two escaped elites, things were pretty much turning to our new society's favor. We had established a set of basic rights afforded to all, gross inequity was equalized without going overboard into a soviet-style communism, folks talked about their hopes and fears. We reflected nostalgically on the events that just transpired at the pub. As I said, life was good.
Then the cops showed up. One of the escaped elites called the police, which brought the entire society experiment to a screeching halt. It was the ultimate power move - using resources from outside the experiment to end the experiment. Ouch.
Reflections and Lessons Learned
The whole exercise was far more moving than I can possibly express on this blog, but even more important are the lessons I learned from the exercise. Here are a few:
- Desperate Situations Create Desperate People. It amazed me how quickly successful and respected professionals can organize into a strong labor union and then into an insurgent force within the period of just days. When people's basic rights to privacy, free speech, and appeal are violated, when they see little opportunity for meaningful employment and advancement in their lives, they can very easily revolt. Sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently. It's all too easy to cast such people in other countries as mere troublemakers without realizing that if we were in their position, we too could be equally radical. In many ways, the situations around us sculpt our lives more than we do.
- Allow People a Release. One of the reasons that the immigrants were so easily riled up is that the elites allowed them literally no outlets for their frustration. The courts were rigged and unfair, most were too poor to visit the pub, the newspaper was censored, and there was no time for organized sports activities. All people need a chance to relax and unwind, without which, there cannot be a peaceful and productive work environment.
- Create Contingency Plans. Even the best laid plans will change - don't let the change take you by surprise. We were so emotionally overwhelmed by the idea that the society might end before we got a chance to revolt, we didn't fully consider the ramification of our new plan. If we had created contingency plans in the beginning, we would have been much better prepared for the changing nature of our revolution.
- Study the System. So often we think only about our role and place in society without taking a step back and studying the place we occupy within the space. This is the reason that many middles were ineffective, they didn't see their space. This is the reason the elites created such a tense environment, they didn't see their power to deflate and deflect anger. This is the reason the immigrants did not revolt until they had a middle defector, they didn't realize the strength of their solidarity. Barry Oshry calls this "system sight" - we need more of it in our world today.
