Does power corrupt… or disconnect us?

In many organizations, when we talk about power, we tend to frame it as a moral issue: good power versus bad power. Yet this simplistic view does little to help us understand what actually happens when someone accumulates power within a complex social system — such as a company, a team, or a working community.

In Humankind Rutger Bregman raises a more subtle and provocative question: what happens to a person when they gain power? Does power simply reveal who they truly are? Or does it reshape the way they relate to others, listen, and perceive the people around them?

This perspective invites us to move beyond individual morality and view power as a relational dynamic within human systems.

When power introduces distance

Psychological research points to something striking: many of the qualities that help people rise into leadership — empathy, listening, interpersonal sensitivity — tend to weaken once power becomes consolidated. Power does not necessarily make people morally worse, but it introduces distance:

• It reduces the ability to read other people’s emotions.

• It weakens active listening.

• It increases impulsiveness in decision-making.

• It creates a stronger sense of entitlement or authority.

This happens not because people are inherently bad, but because power reduces exposure to the real impact of our decisions. There is less honest feedback, less direct contact with what teams genuinely think or feel.

This phenomenon is not simply an individual ethical failure; it is a relational and systemic consequence of how organizational contexts operate when they lack mechanisms that preserve human connection.

Power as a property of living systems

From the perspective of the Fabrika Method, organizations are not machines made up of isolated parts; they are living social systems where flows of information, energy, and relationships continuously interact. In every social system, differences in status and influence naturally emerge: power is not an exception, but an inherent property.

The challenge is not to eliminate power — that is impossible in any human group — but to regulate and balance it within organizational culture so it does not evolve into disconnection.

When there are no spaces for genuine participation, when differences cannot be expressed safely, and when vertical trust deteriorates, the system loses collective intelligence and adaptive capacity. This disconnection is one of the greatest cultural risks facing organizations today.

Conscious leadership: connected, not isolated power

Perhaps the real question is not whether power corrupts, but how we design cultures that prevent power from isolating us.

From a systemic perspective, some key principles for sustaining leadership that remains connected include:

     1. Genuine spaces for participation
It is not enough to communicate decisions. Organizations need structures where people can meaningfully influence collective decisions.

     2. Psychological safety within teams
When people are not afraid to speak up, the system gains clarity, learning capacity, and adaptability.

     3. Honest feedback toward leadership
Leadership needs exposure to diverse perspectives in order to remain sensitive to what is happening across the system.

     4. Structural humility
Recognizing that a role provides influence, but not essential superiority. This helps sustain closer, more cooperative relationships.

From disconnection to collective intelligence

Bregman’s reflection invites us to examine not only what individuals in positions of power do, but also the kinds of cultural systems we have built around power itself.

Because ultimately, this is less a moral issue than a structural one:
how do we prevent power from breaking human connection?

Organizations that can answer this question cultivate cultures where:

• Diversity of perspectives is not merely tolerated, but integrated.

• Participation is not symbolic, but embedded in everyday practice.

• Leadership is understood as the facilitation and care of relationships.

• Collective intelligence becomes a strategic asset.

This is the kind of culture that enables organizations not only to achieve results, but also to sustain dignity, connection, and collective learning as core pillars of organizational effectiveness.