Flexing Your Facilitative Power

What’s your role as a leader in equity work—are you here to disrupt the system, protect it, or somehow do both? In this episode, Sangita Kumar and Fong Marcolongo unpack the real tension leaders face when trying to shift culture while managing budgets, relationships, timelines, and organizational stability. Through candid reflection on their own team’s journey, they explore how easy it is to conflate personal comfort with structural constraint—and why that awareness matters. They dive into: The tension between disrupting and protecting systems Why bite-sized, practice-based change builds real capacity How to navigate champions, skeptics, and active detractors The difference between relational, facilitative, and positional power How to name tension in the room without escalating conflict Why facilitation is a leadership muscle—not just a meeting skill Whether you’re leading from positional authority or influencing from the middle, this episode offers practical moves for holding complexity, setting boundaries, and guiding productive struggle. If you’re doing equity work inside real-world constraints, this conversation will help you flex your facilitative power with more clarity and confidence. 🎧 Tune in and keep building the muscle.