125. Sound-Up Governance Episode 1 featuring Tiziana Casciaro

Today's episode of OMG is actually a crossover with a new podcast, Sound-Up Governance, which is part of the new Ground-Up Governance platform. Episode 1 features an interview with Tiziana Casciaro, author of Power, for All: How it Really Works, and Why it's Everyone's Business. If you like what you hear, please consider heading over to groundupgovernance.com and subscribing.   SCRIPT The next three episodes of OMG are gonna be REALLY different. Well, actually, they’re not episodes of OMG at all, but episodes of a brand new podcast called Sound-Up Governance, which is part of my new Ground-Up Governance platform. Sound-Up Governance features interviews with experts who don’t necessarily come from the regular pool of corporate governance “gurus” so to speak. Instead, they are experts in stuff that’s really important to doing corporate governance well, and can help us to understand what’s really going on in our organizations. First up is Professor Tiziana Casciaro, who literally wrote the book on power and authority. If you like what you hear, head over to groundupgovernance.com to learn more and consider subscribing.   Matt  Welcome to Sound-Up Governance, part of the ground up governance network. My name is Matt Fullbrook. And in today's episode I speak with my friend Tiziana Casciaro, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. We launched the Ground-Up Governance newsletter this week with the most fundamental concepts in corporate governance: authority and power. I mean, what could be more essential to corporate governance then trying to understand who's allowed to do what and what it takes for one person to influence another person? Luckily for us, Professor Casciaro, recently co authored a book with Harvard's Julie Battilana called Power for All: How it Really Works, and Why it's Everyone's Business. And just so I don't mess anything up, why don't we let her tell us a bit more?   Tiziana  It's a book intended for all in this world, not only in Canada, not only the US, but really, truly everywhere, who have contended with power, have struggled with it been frustrated by it, while understanding that it's important for them to have it, and know how to use it. And we have tried to give tools and understandings that allow people to grow in their influence, but also learn how to deploy it for good.   Matt  It never much occurred to me to think very hard about what power really is, or how, if at all, it's different from authority, or why, for example, people in really visible or influential positions sometimes fail to make a difference, am I missing somethingZ   Tiziana  Power is often very much confused with authority, or or I should say, authority is often confused with power. They are different, however. Authority is the formal right to issue orders and directives and make decisions. And it comes from the position you occupy in a formal structure. So your role puts you in a place where you get to make certain decisions. Power is different, however. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of other people. And you can influence them sometimes through your formal authority. If I have the right to decide whether you're going to be promoted or not, that gives me power over you. It's not just authority, but it's actual power. Why? Because you want something from me: a promotion. I have control over your access to this thing you want because I have the right to decide whether you will be promoted or not. And therefore I exercise influence over you. That's what power is made of. It's made of controlling your access to something you desire.  But you see, already in the definition of power, that I may control, access to something you want without having formal authority.   Matt   So can a person create power? Does that even make sense?   Tiziana  Absolutely makes sense. A person can increase their power, if they understand this simple principle of where power c