What people are saying
“Our biggest global problems call on us to cooperate more effectively at every level. Ted Rau is not only a global thought leader in thinking about governance and collaboration, he is also an authentic, passionate practitioner — working hard to bring abstract ideas and principles to life through his stories and personal reflections. This book is such a tremendous resource I will be suggesting it as a key reading for our ProSocial training courses.”
Paul Atkins, Co-founder Prosocial World
“If you are interested in a world where people listen and work collectively to solve problems, Collective Power is for you. Building on years of real-world experience, Ted Rau provides an operation manual for the creation and maintenance of self-governing communities with serious attention to equity”.
Professor Charlie Schweik, President of the International Association for the Study of Commons
“I love this insightful sensemaking around our social constructs, hand in hand with candid sharing of the unlearning and relearning process around power and responsibility.
A sweet blend of practical tools, pointed sensemaking, and inner ponderings, that help travel to the many complexities of being more collective together.”
Samantha Slade, author of Going Horizontal
“Distribution and acceptance of power is at the core of developing truly shared teams and organizations. Acknowledging the power of power and knowing how to balance it unlocks the door to better, more safe, inclusive and effective teams and organizations. With Collective Power, Ted Rau elegantly explores and explains power dynamics while he offers insight, examples, inspiration and actionable help to manage the discipline of power distribution. This is the kind of book you wish had been published many years ago. It’s a must-read for all who are serious about developing more healthy and sustainable formats for addressing the challenges of today — and tomorrow.”
Mette Aagaard, author of Medledelse – når teamet er chef (Shared Leadership – When the team is the boss)
“For anyone interested in creating a better world considering the different levels: individual, group, societal and planet, this book is a must. Ted presents the views of collectively distributed power without the struggles of “power over” and“ power-under” by using stories, anecdotes and dialogs in a pedagogical and brilliant way.”
Alicia Medina, author of Teal, Trust, Transparency
“In Collective Power, Dr. Ted Rau –one of the world’s leading sociocracy practitioners – provides us with a gift. Drawing on a decade of experience, along with vulnerable reflection, Rau reveals how governance and agreements can foster systems that support power-with and power-within. While these are far from new topics, it’s Rau’s experience with and appreciation for the intentional design of collective containers that makes his multi-layered analysis and guidance so deeply relevant for these times.“
Donnie Maclurcan, Executive Director of the Post Growth Institute.
“In this engaging and informative book, Ted successfully puts his finger on the pulse of one of the most significant points of leverage that we have to build a better world now by clarifying the underlying rule sets that enable successful self-organization and exploring anecdotally how these work in real life from the small group to our entire globe.”
Cecile M. Green, author of Collaboration that Works: A Ruthlessly Practical Handbook for a Generative World, Co-founder of Round Sky Solutions
