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Building Power Together: Lessons in Leadership and Collective Action from Global Health Changemakers 

A diverse group of businesspeople uniting their hands symbolizing teamwork and cooperation.

How do leaders recognize, build, and share power to create lasting change? This question guided a recent Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) Learn, Engage, Advance, Disrupt (LEAD) Fellowship alumni workshop, where 16 women leaders from across regions and sectors came together to examine what effective leadership looks like in global health. Led by Julie Battilana, Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School and Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also founder and faculty chair of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative, the workshop invited fellows to examine where power comes from, how it moves through relationships and institutions, and how leaders can build collective capacity to advance change. 

From climate change and emerging infectious diseases to health inequities and fragile health systems, many of today’s global health challenges cannot be addressed by any single institution or sector alone. Addressing these challenges requires leaders who can build partnerships, mobilize communities, and bring together diverse sources of knowledge, influence, and expertise. 

“Power is never a possession; it is always relative,” Battilana said. “You may not have all the personal, positional, or relational sources of power by yourself that are needed to implement the really important changes you want to make happen. But if you join forces with others, you tremendously expand the pool of valued resources you have access to, which means that you have so much more power collectively.” 

Power Is Relational, Not Just Positional  

Jessica Cohen, HGHI Co-Faculty Director of the Harvard LEAD Fellowship and Professor of Health Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed how power operates beyond formal structures. 

“That’s how you can gain access to valuable resources — through knowing informally who can help you access what,” she said. 

This point led to a broader discussion about how influence is built and sustained within systems where formal authority is only one source of power. Flora Nwagagbo, a 2022 LEAD Fellow and Senior Program Specialist for TB/HIV at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reflected on this distinction: 

“Positional power can make people comply, but relationship-based influence is what makes people commit. Formal networks may get people to open the door, but informal networks are what make them walk through it with you and for you.” 

Leadership Requires Bringing Others Along 

Building influence, however, is only part of the leadership challenge. Participants explored how leaders translate relationships and trust into collective action by creating the conditions for others to contribute toward a shared purpose. 

Marie-Roseline Darnycka Belizaire, Regional Emergency Director for the WHO African Region and a 2023 Harvard LEAD Fellow, discussed the importance of balancing task-oriented leadership with a people-centered approach.  

“You need a mix of them in order to have things done in a way,” she said. “We need to have people that are really with you, but at the same time, you must keep them oriented to the task to achieve what you want. If you focus only on the task, you can find yourself alone, and everyone is going in another direction. You need a people-centered approach where you bring the team together and work together toward the task.” 

Collective Action Creates Lasting Change 

The conversation concluded with a shared understanding that meaningful change is rarely the work of one person alone. Even the most recognized changemakers succeed not as singular actors, but by building movements, strengthening networks, and creating the conditions for others to act. 

Key lessons from the workshop included: 

  • Understand how power operates within a system. Effective changemakers recognize where influence lies, how resources move, and how the broader landscape shapes opportunities for change. 
  • Advancing meaningful change requires challenging existing approaches, developing new solutions, and aligning people and resources toward a shared purpose. 
  • Balance people and task-oriented leadership. Creating lasting change requires the ability to build trust and engage others while also maintaining focus on goals and implementation. 
  • Recognize the influence of informal networks. Regardless of one’s formal position, relationships and connections shape the ability to influence outcomes. Effective leaders understand their own networks and the individuals who play central roles within them. 

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