Bring some anarchy to work today.
It's less "watch the world burn" and more "watch the baddies squirm."
I know. The title here - “bring some anarchy to work today” can be concerning. But don’t worry. I’m not asking you to do anything crazy. No rule breaking or illegal behaviour required.
All you have to do to bring some anarchy to work today is the following:
Share with someone - at your level or below - the valuable knowhow you’re keeping hidden.
The thing that gives you leverage. Better yet, share it with the cagiest, most territorial human you can.
Then, watch their brain break.
Now, you might say, “There isn’t anything I’m keeping tucked away.”
And if that’s true, then I applaud you for being a better human than the rest of us. But trust me, you can be a nice, productive, successful human - and still keep something back for a rainy day.
Maybe it’s the way you save time. Maybe it’s the unique insight you have from that last project. Maybe it’s a coded email filter. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, the anarchical spirit of sharing stays the same.
By giving away knowledge, you are technically giving someone the power to succeed without you.
Here’s where it gets weird.
Most likely, that person you’re sharing it with won’t even use it.
And that, right there, is a great indicator of the niceness of your workplace.
Let’s back up.
Knowing the concept of anarchy is a bit foreign to those of us in decidedly NOT anarchical systems, a refresher courtesy of the great Wikipedia:
Anarchy is “a philosophy that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims that maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy.”
Sounds - calmer than I remember? A lot less Lord of the Flies, more “questioning of the nature of power.”
Before you worry I’m out here getting you to overthrow the government - decidedly not.
We’re here, I hope, because we are all interested in building and maintaining systems that protect us (including from one another).
Side note: When reading up about anarchy, I was reminded of the early years of crypto, when every libertarian with a Twitter account wanted to use the tech to “disintermediate the government.”
My man, have you ever been somewhere WITHOUT a government? It’s not good. Just thinking about an unregulated sewage disposal system, at the mercy of roads riddled with potholes, has me volunteering to up my tax rate.
I think where we have some room to learn from anarchy, though, is on the nature of power.
A lot of not-nice systems (including some workplaces) derive their power from knowledge hierarchies. It’s all about looking irreplaceable, being the smartest one in the room, being the only person who could solve or fix or help the situation at hand, because you know something others don’t. This is what makes it possible to get up the power ladder and, if you so choose, to use it subjugate people beneath you.
And unfortunately, even if we’re not in one now, a lot of us come from work places like this. So when someone proactively volunteers information that not only can we use, but we can use to look better, smarter and more valuable than them? Red. Alert. What. is. the. catch. 🚨
That’s why the person from your mind game above might not have used your leverage. They’re probably thinking: …Are they tricking me?
Unfortunately, this mindset misses the forest for the trees.
The best-kept-secret about knowledge is that you don’t lose it by sharing it. And by sharing it, you look confident, expert, mature, and ultimately unflappable.
Because if you can easily give it away, then what makes you special isn’t the knowledge. It has to be something else. Something unique to you. Something worth keeping you around for.
TL;DR: If you want to fight unequal or not-nice systems, truly, be a teacher. It’s one of the few hierarchies where the person in power actively works to disintermediate themselves. All they want is for us to learn what they know!
Just think of your parents. Are they poorer for teaching you how to walk and talk and sit on a chair and use a spoon like a civilised human being? Not at all. They showed up every day, executing a loving and minor anarchy, all in service of making you not look like a uncoordinated wild wolf-child the next time you’re out to dinner.
So! Go teach someone something today.
xRachel
PS. Some of my American military family members are currently visiting me, so let’s see how spicy dinner conversation gets after this edition comes out. I predict a half/half split on whether they agree on the minor anarchy point.