Building Collective Power

 

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

 

– Margaret Mead

Why Collective Power Matters

Power rarely yields willingly. Real change happens when people come together — across different cultures, sectors, and identities — to demand and design something better.

We live in an age of fragmentation: algorithms push us into echo chambers, activism is increasingly individualised, and solidarity can feel fragile. 

From anti-colonial liberation movements across Africa and Asia, to Indigenous land defenders in Latin America. From the US Civil Rights Movement, to Women, Life, Freedom in Iran, and from #MeToo to Extinction Rebellion — change that reshaped societies was collective. It came from people organising together, not acting alone.

💡 Collective power isn’t just people gathered around an issue. It’s people aligning around a shared purpose, strategy, and vision for the world they want next.

Understand How Power Works

To build power together, we first have to understand how it operates. There are many ways to describe power — movements, academics, and organisations all use different models — but one simple and helpful lens breaks it into three forms:

Power Over, which is about control and dominance. Power To, the capacity to act and make change. Power With, the shared strength that emerges through collaboration and solidarity.

Movements thrive on “Power With.” It’s relational, sustaining, and far more resilient than anything held by one institution or individual.

At Comotion, we deepen this by helping leaders and teams map their resource, reputational, relational, and positional power — so they can see where their influence already sits and how to use it with intention.

Find Shared Ground

Collective power does not require total agreement on everything. It is about establishing shared principles that can hold tension, difference, and diversity.

Start by naming your common ground:

What do we all believe in?

What are we not willing to compromise on?

What does success look like for each of us?

💡 Tip: Begin from values. It’s easier to align on why we care than how to get there.

The feminist movement, for example, includes activists, organisers, Indigenous leaders, union members, politicians, funders, and corporate actors — often with very different and sometimes, competing strategies shaped by culture, geography and lived experience. But when shared values are clear, collaboration becomes possible even when strategies diverge. 

Build from Relationships, Not Roles

Collective power is highly relational. It grows through trust, reciprocity, and consistency.

To build trusted relationships, require nurture over time; showing up reliably and creating space for perspectives different from your own. Practically this means:

Listen more than you speak.

Don’t just show up — follow up afterwards too.

Be accountable for your impact — not just your intent.

Honour cultural norms of care, respect and reciprocity— especially when working in communities historically harmed by institutions.

Relationships are the infrastructure of movements. They’re what keep coalitions alive long after a campaign ends.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

— East African proverb

Collaborate Without Co-opting

Cross-sector collaboration is powerful — but it can easily slip into tokenism or extraction. When working with communities, funders, or businesses:

Start by asking what already exists before proposing something new.

Share credit, resources, and decision-making power.

Name privilege and positioning in the room.

Let those most affected lead —especially when they’ve been historically excluded from power.

Create a Culture of Care

Movements fail when they replicate the same harm they’re trying to dismantle. Sustainable power comes from care:

• Clear boundaries
• Conflict resolution practices
• Transparent communication
• Accountability

Ask: What does it look like for our group, across our different identities and access needs,  to build power without losing ourselves?

Turn Coalitions into Action

Once trust is built, turn shared understanding into shared action.

Map your ecosystem: Who’s doing what, and where the gaps are.

Set a unifying goal: One action everyone can contribute to.

Define roles: Not everyone needs to do everything — distribute tasks by skill and capacity.

Celebrate milestones: Visibility and gratitude fuel momentum.

Keep the Circle Open

Collective power depends on permeability — new people, new ideas, new energy. Build structures that invite participation without gatekeeping.

Ask yourself regularly:

Who’s not yet in the room?

Whose perspective would change what we build and how?

What needs to evolve as we grow?

Movements must create space for marginalised groups: disabled activists, migrants, queer and trans communities, working-class organisers and those from the Global South, not as afterthoughts but as core architects of the work. Movements thrive when they are adaptive enough to innovate and grounded enough to endure.

Your Collective Practice

You don’t have to build a movement overnight. Start by finding one person who shares your vision — then another, and another. That’s how every movement begins.

If you want to dive deeper into Collective organising check out Malcolm Ganz’s body of work: you can find much of it here.

Tarana Burke & the Origins of #MeToo (before it went viral) — Grassroots movement for survivor support and collective healing.

Women, Life, Freedom (Iran) — A decentralised movement driven by collective courage and relational organising.  

Black Lives Matter Global Network (United States) — Decentralised power, shared strategy, community-based leadership.

Dalit Women Fight (India) — Intersectional feminist movement using storytelling + community organising.

Ella Baker’s Organising Philosophy (United States) — Leaderful organising + participatory democracy.