Power Is Shifting: From Titles to Trust
The Human Shift - A Series on Power, Insight & AI
This is an ongoing series of reflections about what’s quietly changing in our world, in how we access truth, hold power, ask questions, and reclaim voice. It’s about what AI reveals, but also what it cannot replace. About systems that are crumbling, and the quiet rise of something more human, honest, and real. Written from inside the work of therapy, reflection, and real-life shift. Not from certainty, but from lived experience and slow witnessing. So … if you’ve felt the world tilting we well, this is for you.
Originally published on LinkedIn. Now shared here with space to breathe and grow.
There might be a quiet change happening.
For generations, power came from titles. From degrees, status, systems, and affiliations. It came from the way your name was introduced, the acronyms behind it, and who gave you the right to speak.
But now, something softer, deeper, and more honest is slowly rising: Trust. Presence. Lived resonance.
People no longer always ask, “What are your qualifications?” They also start asking, “Can I feel you? Can I trust you? Do you see me?” And for many of us, this shift is not just intellectual. It’s emotional. It means the space you were once denied, you can now hold. The truth you carried quietly, you can now speak aloud.
Why This Hurts, and Heals
For those who’ve been dismissed, overlooked, or told they weren’t “qualified enough,” this shift brings grief as well as relief.
You remember the years you stayed quiet in rooms that felt unsafe. The moments you doubted your knowing because someone else had more letters. The time you brought clarity and were met with credentials. To realise now that you were never wrong, just out of time, can be both empowering and heartbreaking.
But that heartbreak is a threshold. And on the other side is a new kind of strength.
What This Might Look Like
I imagine this shift will show up in all kinds of unexpected ways.
In someone who spent years being dismissed by doctors or therapists, only to discover, through quiet reflection (maybe even through AI), that they already held the insight. Not because anyone granted it, but because they lived it.
In someone who never finished formal education, but becomes the most trusted person in their team. Not because of a title, but because of their steadiness. Their ability to listen. Their presence under pressure. Or perhaps because they dare to ask questions nobody else does.
And perhaps in you, if you have ever felt the pressure to sound “qualified” instead of just being real.
I’ve felt it in myself.
Something softening.
Something steadying.
Each time I have stopped trying to sound like someone else and began to show up as I am, the work deepened. Not less professional, but more honest, more real.
What Becomes Possible Now
When trust becomes the currency of power, new doors open:
People begin to speak who had been silent for decades
Questions once mocked as naive are recognised as wise
Healing happens outside traditional offices (and no, skills that require manual work are not replaced just yet ;-))
Leadership emerges from lived experience, not just learned content
And conversations become spaces of shared humanity, not performance
This is not just a cultural shift. It’s a personal one. And a sacred one.
Power in Groups & The Quiet Tools to Question It
Power isn’t always loud or official.
In group spaces such as workplaces, friendships, even healing circles, power is often taken subtly: through confidence, speed, tone, or unspoken rules about who gets to speak and who gets deferred.
Some people always "know." Others always pause, soften, step back. Not because they lack insight, but because they’ve learned not to trust their voice.
Here too, AI may become an unexpected equaliser. Not because it fixes group dynamics, but because it helps people, individuals, see them more clearly.
Used with curiosity, AI can help you:
Name the tension you feel but can’t explain
Rehearse the hard question before asking it out loud
Reflect on your role in the dynamic, without shame
Build the language to speak, not to dominate, but to stay rooted
That, too, is power. And for many of us, it’s new. Not power over, but power with. Power to notice. Power to stay.
What About the Work Behind the Titles?
Let’s be clear: titles are not the enemy. They often represent years of study, commitment, and meaningful effort. That work matters. But the shift we’re in doesn’t dismiss the work, it simply expands who gets to learn, and how learning is honoured.
You still need to do the work.
But now, more people can access the tools, reflection, and guidance that were once kept behind closed doors. And now you might have access to learn in the way that works best for you. This isn’t about replacing education, it’s about liberating it. About recognising that wisdom grows not only in institutions, but also in kitchens, forests, healing rooms, quiet hours, and lived experience.
The invitation now is not: “Do you have a title?” It’s: “Have you done the work, and can I feel that in you?”
And Something Else Becomes Possible
Where there was once one official truth, delivered from the top down, we begin to see many truths, lived, layered, and real.
We learn to hold complexity. To hear nuance. To stop flattening human experience into binary thinking.
This isn’t about chaos or relativism. It’s about recognising depth. We may begin to see that emotional clarity is as valid as scientific certainty, That personal knowing has weight, and that no single voice can carry the whole truth alone.
What About Media, Expertise, and Public Trust?
This shift will reach journalism, too.
Where media once decided who could speak and which expert voice defined a subject, we may now question that model. The standard expert interview, one voice, one opinion, one quote, can feel insufficient.
We may begin to ask:
Whose voices are always included?
Whose stories are never invited in?
What would it mean to quote someone without a title, because of how clearly they’ve lived it?
Even professionalism, in this light, can expand: from polished neutrality toward something more alive, complex, and true.
Closing Reflection
So if you’ve ever felt too sensitive, too quiet, too unconventional, too late, this may be your time. If you’ve been dismissed by titles, degrees, or detached professionalism, please know: Your presence may be the most trustworthy thing in the room. We are allowed to bring clarity, courage, and connection, even without permission. And we are not alone in this shift. We are part of it.
Part of the series:
The Human Shift
Reflections from the edge of AI and humanity.
