How to build power and make a change

The Community Organising Masterclass never let me down, I had so much fun and felt so empowered every time in the sessions, it has become one of the most important experiences I have got as a member of King's community.?

Thank you to Hannah Gretton for today's session, we grouped up to negotiate in a real-life scenario for both sides, which is kind of similar to a court trial, but without a judge or arbitrator. There is often no pure evil in negotiation or a trial, and it is not a competition or race that one party is doomed to be the loser, the best outcome of the negotiation is both parties feel they have got a good deal, so the key of negotiation is actually to communicate and cooperate - and build relationships,?after all, it is rare to strike a deal at the first time, and a half deal is better than a no-deal!

Indeed, because of the difficulty to make a deal, bringing about change is hard. Only when we are at the table - that we feel powerful enough to step up and ask for it, could it be possible to make any change. For this reason, we have to make a good judgement of our situation - analyze what communities we are in, with whom we have relationships, what other communities could be our allies,?build and employ our relational power, to make a positive impact. During that process, as Paulina Tamborrel? said, remember to 'be comfortable of being uncomfortable'!??

James from Citizens UK introduced a real practical tool for us to analyse the situations - who the decision-makers are, who the stakeholders are, how their attitude towards the agenda, and how we can work to change the whole game. As Fatimah Ahmed said, it is like playing a chess game, on one hand, you have to preassume and predict other players' moves, on the other hand, the process of adjusting the positions in the diagram itself is empowering!

Thanks to all the masterclass organisers and participants, looking forward to seeing you in the next session!