In this paper, we describe a Participatory Insider Action Research (PIAR) intervention within the Executive Committee (EC) of a large publicly funded service for people with intellectual disabilities. I was a member of this EC and had been for 20 years. The intervention ran over a two-year period and comprised three cycles of PIAR. We addressed two specific organisational issues but our work did not deliver change in these areas in a substantial sense. We identify power dynamics and role duality challenges as the core factors that contributed to this outcome and describe their effects in this under-researched domain. We finish by offering some advice for future researchers undertaking initiatives of this nature.