Power struggles, Participating in public

Workplace power struggles can be publicly manifested in a number of ways: personal interactions, mass email, physical posture, etc. Want to get involved?

Ways to challenge the authority of your committee chair...

• Call a meeting and set the primary agenda items
• Arrive early and sit at the head of the table -- normally occupied by the Chair
• Conduct the business of the meeting (give handouts, ask for departmental reports, etc.)
  
• Rephrase what the Chair says in your own words (for everyone else's benefit)
  
• Be aggressive and doggedly defend your ideas, regardless of relevance
• Re-send (to the committee) mass email messages the Chair has already sent to the committee members.
  

This is just a start. Be creative and seize the power.