The Illusion of Shared Power

The Illusion of Shared Power: Lived-Experience Leadership Without Structure examines what happens when organizations embrace the language of justice, equity, trauma-informed practice, and lived-experience leadership while the governance needed to sustain those values remains unclear or underdeveloped. Drawing from lived experience, systems work, and organizational observation, R.J. Jackson explores representation without authority, informal power, uneven accountability, and the inefficiency and harm that can emerge when participation is mistaken for power. This book is not an argument against lived-experience leadership. It is a call to take it seriously-by establishing transparent roles, defined authority, ethical accountability, and good stewardship that turn participation into influence and values into practice.