by: MJ Mathis
What does it take to change a system?
We’ve been sitting with this question a lot lately. Not in an abstract, theoretical way, but in the very practical sense of: how do organizations that care about humanity actually shift the larger systems we’re all operating within?
The answer keeps bringing us back to coalition building.
Why Coalition Building Matters Now
Since 2019, we’ve been working with organizations trying to build values-aligned, human-centered workplaces. We’ve seen how isolating that work can be. Leaders doing this work often feel like they’re pushing against enormous systems alone. They make introductions, share resources, refer clients to each other. But mostly, they’re working in parallel rather than together.
And right now, in this moment when anxiety is high and the ground keeps shifting, working in parallel isn’t enough.
Coalition building disrupts something fundamental in our culture: the myth that change happens through individual action. That if we just work hard enough, think clearly enough, build our organizations well enough, we can create the change we want to see.
But systems shift through coalescing.
What Coalition Building Actually Is
We keep coming back to Bobbi Harro’s Cycle of Liberation. In her framework, coalition building sits between the intrapersonal work (understanding yourself, your patterns, your complicity) and systems change. It’s the interpersonal work, but not just person to person; organization to organization.
Coalition building means connecting with people and organizations like you and different from you. It means education, organizing, raising funds, lobbying. It means taking collective action toward shared goals.
Here’s what makes it different from networking or partnerships:
Coalition building centers sovereignty and interdependence at the same time.
Each person and organization brings unique value. Each holds different levels of responsibility depending on the priority at hand. And each stands on equal footing in terms of worthiness and belonging within the coalition. It might look like a central “hub” where people and resources can overlap to discuss, strategize, check in and then spokes that split off to take action only to come back again for reflection, assessment and more strategizing.
This is a lot to hold. It requires us to think flexibly and critically. To understand that someone can have more responsibility in one area and less in another, and that doesn’t diminish their value or voice. To recognize that we are mutually dependent: that your success and ours are connected.
What Coalition Building Requires
Coalition building requires human-centered, shared leadership that prioritizes:
Critical thinking. The kind that lets us:
- Use judgment to make decisions without needing to be right
- Create something new together
- Hold our perspectives loosely enough to learn and shift and allow for nuance
- Take responsibility for our decisions without making the other side into villains
Relational intelligence. Understanding ourselves deeply enough to understand others. Knowing what we need, what we can offer, and what we absolutely cannot compromise on. Being able to hold the highest shared value in the center (the thing that overlaps in our connection) even when conflict arises. And conflict will arise.
A disruption of “in or out” thinking. Coalition building asks us to create a spectrum of relationship. There are layers, levels of engagement, ways to participate that honor both capacity and commitment. Not everyone needs to show up the same way and not everyone will.
Appreciation for unique value. Each organization in a coalition brings something distinct. The structure has to allow for that; to actively appreciate what each participant offers rather than trying to homogenize everyone into the same approach.
Non-negotiables grounded in humanity. This is different from shared values, though values matter. Non-negotiables are the floor. The things we will not compromise. And in any coalition worth building, our shared humanity has to be that floor.
The Tensions We’ll Need to Navigate
Coalition building will bring tension. We often experience tension as a failure. But it’s a feature.
There will be tension between class consciousness and identity, between different approaches to the same problem, between organizations with different levels of resources, different histories, different relationships to power.
The structure of the coalition has to be able to withstand interpersonal tension. It has to be strong enough that conflict doesn’t collapse everything we’re building together.
This means we can’t build coalitions around power and control. We can’t focus on THE LEADER. The legacy of a coalition is the systems we build together and our shared stewardship of power and responsibility.
What We’re Building Toward
We’ve always envisioned Leverage to Lead as a network of organizations coalescing around human-centered work. We’ve seen it happen in small ways: introductions that turn into partnerships, shared resources, organizations referring work to each other because they trust the values alignment. Now we’re asking: what would it look like to build this more intentionally?
This vision does not include:
- A hierarchy where one organization sits at the top,
- A franchise where everyone adopts the same model,
- Or organizations losing their unique identities to become part of something homogenous.
Coalition means organizations opting in to belonging and responsibility and making the conscious decision to be in relationship around a shared purpose. Anchored in core values—love, joy, connection, humanity—and holding accountability to them. Supporting each other’s growth. Working together to build systems that prioritize people alongside financial stability.
Here’s what matters about this: interdependence means you don’t have to do it all on your own. You were never supposed to. The myth of the individual leader or the singular organization changing everything is just that, a myth.
Coalition building recognizes that we accomplish more together than we ever could alone. Your success and ours are connected.
The organization down the street working on similar problems isn’t competition, but infrastructure for shared commitment to change.
We don’t have all the answers about what this looks like yet. We’re in the questions and we’ll continue to explore our thinking in upcoming blog posts. But we know this: the work between self and system—the coalition-building work—is where the foundation for change is built. And it’s work we can’t do alone.
What would it mean for your organization to be part of a coalition? What would you need? What could you offer? We’d love to hear what this brings up for you.