True Empowerment in (Educational) Systems

by Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann, February 27, 2025

If you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners corrupted from infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded, sire, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?

Thomas More's Utopia, movie Ever After

What about great ideas and how can you grow ideas and thrive in dysfunctional systems? Why is innovation communication more than just a communication field in communication management or an integrated approach for innovation managers and startups to successfully communicate new ideas? It is time to speak up and learn more about abusive power games, coverups and the tragedy of growing up and living with ideas and talent in dysfunctional systems. Abuse has a long-term effect on humanity, society / health, and our next generations and, hence, how we apply knowledge and unlock the true value of innovation and growth. That includes the linkage between innovation communication and trauma, resilience, and empowerment and a powerful approach for a fear-based society, learning organizations, and educational systems. Innovation communication stands for a powerful cultural bottom-up transformation to re-define digital business success. Have you think about the bigger picture, the future of business and next generations? If so, then this article might inspire you to take action, re-think and re-focus your energy and time on new concepts and invent new educational (leadership) programs and systems for empowering and inspiring young minds to make a difference in the world.

I. Stop Adaptation! Happiness Is Not a Choice in Dysfunctional Systems

Why can’t we say no more and educate ourselves, re-design (educational) systems and finally stop making ‘energy thieves’ (= disordered people) and then punish them? It is very important to gain a better and deeper understanding of energy thieves and system patterns because it gets worse over time. It never stops because it gives energy only in one direction for those who desperately needs energy supply from the energetic exchange system of other human beings. A good example for enmeshment is innovation management and business development: After building on internal ideas submitted by employees (idea management), now startups, students, the crowd, and creative people are an energetic source of ideas in the open innovation economy. I do not want to devalue the idea of open innovation but I would like to raise awareness for a misinterpretation or intentional misuse of this concept in dysfunctional systems and why it causes more and more mental-emotional health problems including coming up with new concepts, such as design thinking, business model innovation, and especially ambidexterity for more exploitation and exploration. And for diplomacy, there is a simple answer for why it doesn’t work for systems and it disappears: You cannot use logic and reasoning with disordered people. A realistic term would be ‘depletioncy’.
Four characteristics are common in dysfunctional systems, as shown in Fig. 1:

Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann | Leadership, Strategy & Innovation, Innovation Communication

1. Emotional quicksand and entanglement / Craziness

Imagine, you are walking along a path and you think you are safe and all of a sudden you begin to sink in. And the more you sink in this quicksand, the more it captures you. You are entangled and less free. You fight and sink even further into it and finally it steals your sense of self, identity and feeling of being alive. [Dr. David Hawkins]
There is no reasonable way to discuss your idea in this situation when you sink in the emotional quicksand because the other person / group talks you out of it and meaningless dialogs follow to make you feel crazy or steal your energy, time, and ideas. You are not allowed to have different opinions, speak the truth, set boundaries, express your individuality, and bring your brilliant ideas to fruition. There is a lot of indirect communications, defensive argumentation, silent treatments, and no space for innovation. You have to accept the un/spoken rules and methods of control in those systems! It is defined by unhealthy relating to ideas and, hence, there is no way to clearly communicate new ideas and visions—only if they can copy them.

2. Invisibility and invalidation / Isolation

If in childhood or relationships negative emotions are not allowed to be fully expressed, painful emotions are dismissed and how you feel is irrelevant, you experience a direct form of invalidation. More subtle tactics encompasses asking non-relating questions, re-directing your attention, ignoring your words / messages, and using projection, distraction, intimidation, and indirect statements to make you feel insecure and question your ideas, thoughts, and feelings. This dismissive communication pattern can become normal (normalization), lead to trauma / survival mode and feeling helpless and hopeless to bring forward your ideas. It is a feeling of being isolated, invisible, and running against the wall. If you start to take action and people listen to you, a smear campaign and threats follow to make sure your ideas, knowledge / the truth, thoughts, feelings, and credibility will be invalidated, devalued, and dismissed.

3. Infantilization and competition / Immaturity

‘Infantilization - The act of prolonging an infantile state in a person by treating them as an infant.’ Collins Dictionary This state of a human being leads to (unconscious) learned helplessness which slows down personal growth and bringing about progress to great ideas. It is very exploitative and supply-oriented and creates co-dependent relationships in power-control systems, such as many engagement models in entrepreneurship (corporate-startup partnerships), agency / consulting firms and their clients, and PhDs / students and professors—with disempowering transactions and without a driving force for inter-dependency. The dynamics in those relationships support reactive, market-based competition and adaptation strategies to better control, exploit, and intensify enmeshment resulting in insecurities, passive enablers, and immature behavior which in turn hinder personal and business-economic growth. It is nearly impossible to build trustful relationships and an authentic open-innovation culture in those harsh, unpredictable, fast-changing environments—not because it has to be this way rather it is the problem of dysfunctional patterns based on specific, dynamic information-interaction designs and communication blueprints.

4. Enmeshment, toxic energy, and imbalance / Burn out

Another criteria to identify dysfunctional systems is attachment (trauma) related to our energy exchange system especially for empathic individuals. When the attachment system is activated it also activates the energy flow and opens us up to a free energy exchange, for instance, feeling empathy and taking on the pain of others. The energy exchange system normally gets initiated with the infant-mother relationship, which is key to understand connection, social engagement, attunement in right-to-right brain interactions, and ‘being in sync’ with others to successfully co-create and communicate ideas. In this context, re-thinking the concept of open innovation and growth in dysfunctional systems is inevitable because—without no doubt—opening up in dysfunctional systems leads to burn out, PTSD / trauma and non-resilience, mental-emotional health problems, destruction, and crises. Openness is solely a positive attribution of system design if it is an inter-dependent system; otherwise it creates a real negative, one-sided energy exchange, which causes imbalance, non-assertiveness, and, furthermore, feeds those micro-managers and robots who exploit, control, and abuse open systems (political, corporate, family, media,…). The worst case scenario is the feeling of ‘life-fading’ and learned self-abuse resulting in feeling exhausted in a ‘get-it-done’ cycle.

II. Innovation Communication (Research) and System Resilience

In particular in Germany, we live in an achievement-oriented society and companies focus on innovation, profit growth, performance and process efficiency. Human talent is supposed to micro-manage the defined project and job tasks and social media has become the ultimate psychological e-friend for breaks at work to get distracted, judge others or push harder to achieve goals and high-ranked profiles compared to others. This work-lifestyle of ‘being there and not there’ and driving force of being not good enough—not fast enough, innovative enough, and high-ranked enough—is leading to stress reactions (PTSD) and the pressing need for gaining deeper insights into system resilience and growth at different levels rather than solely focusing on generic themes in management practice. As shown in Fig 2., the three different levels are as follows:
1. Management level: Micro-management focusing on innovation (process) design
2. Individual level: Builder ‘Creating Ideas’ focusing on information-interaction design
3. System level: Gardener ‘Growing Ideas’ focusing on system (re-)design

From ideas and visions to innovation success, it is important to understand all three design levels and the main difference between growth 1.0 and 2.0, which means the difference between builders (= change communicators) and gardeners (= innovation communicators) relating to nourishment, foundation, and culture for long-term growth. Managers cannot invest time and energy in ideas / visions, getting things implemented and executed and eventually taking a little bit of time for self-reflection and personal development / leadership development, and never go to the bottom (system level). Yes, it works for a short period of time, for short-term goals, but not in the long-run and with KPIs measuring the long-term goals and business performance (#longevity). The management level is only the visible surface with max. 5-10 percent impact on system growth in the long-run. 90 percent is about the individual and system / collective level and how individuals interact, connect and learn in relationships and systems (relating and system patterns).

Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann | Leadership, Strategy & Innovation, Innovation Communication

Innovation communication research can be divided into four main fields, as shown in Fig 3., and this article focuses on the fourth field from a strategic management view:
1. Innovation marketing, for instance, entrepreneurial marketing, co-creation
2. (Marketing) diffusion, for instance, word-of-mouth communication, adoption
3. (Corporate) innovation communication, for instance, innovation journalism
4. Strategic innovation communication, for instance, dynamic capability

Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann | Leadership, Strategy & Innovation, Innovation Communication

As a strong dynamic capability innovation communication aims at stepping into, standing ground and enlarging the individual (firm’s) growth zone (learning model). From a biological view it means the capability to interact and connect with others in a positive, healthy way and enlarge the capacity of our nervous system under stress and in unpredictable, abusive environments (resilience model)—i.e. the so-called calm & CONNECT reaction of our system instead of fight, flight, freeze, fawn or shut down as a trauma / PTSD reaction.

HR manager, leader or managing director?! If a consulting company presents specific concepts and ways of thinking, I recommend to independently analyze your system and use clarity and true insights before starting to implement those ‘new’ concepts. Growth 2.0—Empowerment—means creating contribution value, connection value, learning value and, thus, innovation communication is a key task for senior management teams and leaders alike to create value through communication and build healthy relating systems (networks). And managing information-interaction designs using communication model design is key to thrive in dysfunctional systems.

The 4-Step Approach: Empowerment Through Communication

The inside-out approach is simple and you can implement this approach in any system and become a great innovation communicator (gardener, Growth 2.0):

Step 1. Communication Blueprint Review (CBR): Understanding the communication blueprint and ‘gardener capacity’ including (dis-)empowering transactions and engagement-connection patterns
Step 2. Communication Model Design (CMD): Managing dynamic information-interaction designs (tech-human interaction design) using communication model design as a process, method, & tool (free template available)
Step 3. Dynamic System Design (DSD): Implementing a new value chain and dynamic system design based on the innovation communication capability as a basic foundation for value creation and authentic open-innovation culture
Step 4. Innovation Communication Management (ICM): Building the innovation communication capability from a management practice and leadership view, i.e. 5 management principles considering openness, interrelation, and time / timing

True Empowerment! You can be in the driver seat and a relating researcher who objectively observe and understand systems and communicate for innovation. Happiness is your choice and becoming an innovation communicator helps you to stand ground in your individual growth zone and bring your ideas to fruition. It doesn’t mean to become a better manager but rather to grow your gardener capacity as a leader and better interact and connect with other individuals. It is the cultural bottom-up transformation that counts in the Human (Self)Leadership View resulting in value creation and learning (growth 2.0) in the long-run.