Power Shift Benchmarking: Why now and why it matters
Following four years of Power Shifts Labs, the ICS Centre wants to build on all of its collective work through analysis and deeper engagement around progress made. In February 2022, it commissioned a benchmarking study where its members were invited to discuss what shifts are currently underway within their organisations, as well as their challenges and next frontier ambitions.
The results of the study were discussed and shared with study participants in the hope that it would feed into their future exchange and learning while allowing them to benchmark their own progress, over time, and also with each other. The full version of the benchmarking study drills down more concretely into the different forms, types, faces and spaces of formal and informal power. It also looks at how those power shift attempts play out at a more granular level through the lens of decision-making domains and functions. All of this matters, especially at a time when anti-racism and decolonising aid have rightfully taken a front seat in power shift fora across the sector.
The ICS Centre is presenting this aggregated version of the Power Shift benchmarking study as it believes that it will be both relevant and interesting to a much wider community outside of its member base. It also hopes to create a springboard peer-to-peer learning and observation among ICSOs, perhaps even implementing trials and methods based on practices mentioned here.