The rise of the Chinese economy and geopolitical power over the past decade is a fascinating phenomenon in itself, with much to make the United States, Japan, and the EU take pause. It is also instructive for the US nonprofit sector. Here is how.

Imagine an organization that, by its sheer size, holds great potential for enlarging its power; an organization that controls natural and human resources of surprising magnitude; an organization whose rightful place in the world has never been realized due to an inability to mobilize as one and its own conflicting feelings about the very act of taking greater power.

This description fits the Chinese dilemma for the past half-century under communism.

It also fits the nonprofit sector for the same period in the United States. Collectively, we are a huge employer, and our organizations control billions in assets. Yet we have been overlooked as a party to national debates. We are rarely noticed in this sphere of influence except when someone in Congress decides to make a name for himself by attacking the “waste and corruption” of a miniscule proportion of our sector; situations that pale in comparison to notable examples in the other sectors.

However, we ourselves must accept responsibility for our current lack of influence; we do not view ourselves as a unified whole so much as a collection of organizations sharing a tax code designation; in sum, we do not mobilize as one entity.

Again, the example of China is instructive. The Chinese have begun to pull together the country’s vast economic power. Even while the communist leadership in Beijing clings to old style command-and-control, its economy is inexorably hurtling the country toward the open market and democracy. It is only a matter of time until China becomes fully aware of its economic power.

We in the US nonprofit sector must also come together, embrace the power we hold, and make it felt in Washington. Initially we may fight for more favorable charitable deduction provisions to spur increased giving. We may also campaign for a high level of appropriate oversight and oppose the uninformed and potentially harmful restrictions that are conceived in Congress.

Eventually, speaking with one voice, the voice of the dispossessed, the unloved, the unprotected, and the abandoned—the voice of our clients—we must shift the public debate, and eventually public policy, toward more humane, effective, and affordable solutions to the problems facing the nation and the world. Only then can we all win.

I recently re-read Chapter 6 of Peter Block’s Flawless Consulting Fieldbook, a companion to his Flawless Consulting, the bible of the consulting industry. At the outset of this chapter he makes a remarkable claim: “The way to change a culture is to change the conversations.”

This statement strikes me as both true and profound. How many times do we, as consultants, try to help a client change a clearly dysfunctional pattern—even one the client admits is problematic—only to find the conversation drifts back to familiar ground? We try to refocus the conversation, but to no avail, and we all leave the meeting frustrated.

Block’s suggestion is to engage the group in a conversation about what matters to the members of the group—to view them as participants in the discussion, not as recipients of information.

When I have taken this approach, perhaps inadvertently or out of frustration, I have found that the conversation can indeed change. Since people make their own sense of their work life, asking them what matters to them and challenging them to go deeper than the usual complaints—to get personal, to take a risk—can be powerful. Of course, the conversation must be two-way, and so the consultant must go deeper with them.

The result can be the beginning of a more lasting change in the conversation and, subsequently, in the group’s views of their work and organizational life together.