Power is about who gets what, who does what, who decides what, and who sets the agenda. It’s also about whose knowledge and experience inform those decisions.
If our missions involve addressing power imbalances in the wider world, examining how power operates in our own strategy processes is an important starting point.
Who defines the problem? Whose experience shapes our priorities? Who makes the final call—and who lives with the consequences?
Political instability, climate change, financial pressure, changing donor expectations and rapid technological shifts make these questions more pressing, not less. We need to understand the power shaping the landscape around us, while recognising how our own ways of working might reinforce the imbalances we want to change.
What could this look like in practice?
Power-aware strategy design means asking how we can:
- Involve people affected by our work in shaping priorities—not just commenting on decisions already made.
- Be honest about who holds decision-making power, what is open to change, and what isn’t.
- Recognise whose knowledge and experience are missing, and address the barriers to their participation.
- Create ways for people to challenge our assumptions, influence our choices and hold us accountable.
We don’t have all the answers. Quite the contrary: if we’re going to walk the walk, we need to learn from each other how to be accountable to the people whose lives our missions aim to improve.
Explore these questions with us
That’s the spirit we’re bringing to the Strategy Design Festival: a one-day gathering in London for people working in NGOs, civil society organisations and charities who want to explore how strategy can remain useful in uncertain times.
How do we create living, breathing strategies that guide real decisions, respond to change and stay grounded in our missions? And how do we make the process of developing them reflect the changes we want to see?
We’re bringing people together to explore these questions, share experiences and learn from each other. Not to arrive at a single perfect process, but to work through what we could do differently and better.
On 19 January 2027, at Toynbee Hall in London, come with your questions, your experience and your willingness to think with others.
