Stuck start
We’ve brought together passionate partners with lots of potential, but we’re stuck on what to prioritise first.
The first few workshops were electric. We had a dozen potential projects, a hundred possible actions, and a shared feeling that we were on the cusp of something transformative. But when we tried to answer the simple question, “What do we do first?” the conversation stalled. The surplus of good ideas revealed a deeper challenge: we hadn't agreed on how we would decide together. Unspoken questions about who holds the authority to set the agenda, whose priorities matter most, and how to navigate different interests are now causing paralysis. The initial excitement is fading into a frustrating cycle of circular conversations, and we're caught between an inability to choose a path and a lack of a process for choosing.
Connecting Learnings to this Challenge
The early phase of a collaboration is a critical moment for turning potential into momentum. The twin challenges of defining a clear starting point and establishing the initial ‘rules of the game’ can quickly erode trust if not handled intentionally. The following insights and alerts offer considerations for tackling these intertwined problems.
Areas of the Many-to-Many System that aim to address this challenge
A “Stuck Start” caused by an inability to prioritise and decide often points to gaps in a collaboration's foundational strategy and governance. The following layers are particularly useful for addressing this dual challenge:
- Missions: Helps tackle the “what” by using the Wide and Narrow boundary missions as a tool to distinguish the ultimate North Star from the most strategic first step.
- Ecosystem Strategy: Offers a collaborative process for sifting through possibilities to define a shared strategic focus, directly addressing the challenge of prioritisation.
- Governance System: Addresses the “how” by helping establish the necessary decision-making frameworks and processes needed to make a collective choice.
- Deep Code Shifts: Provides a lens to surface the unspoken assumptions about power and value that are often the root cause of decision-making paralysis.
We note that the Many-to-Many System focusses on, and therefore shares, infrastructural and process aids for these challenges. We recognise other critical facets including but not limited to relational holding, tending to power, team-building, facilitation and practice development could and should play a role in solving the challenges.
Tools and Examples linked to this Challenge
Getting started on the right foot requires tackling two things at once: choosing a clear focus and designing the initial conditions for your collaboration. The tools and examples below offer practical ways to facilitate foundational conversations about priorities, power, and early governance agreements.
Process Stewardship Experiment Log
Log book from the process stewardship perspective of the things tried and tested in the proof of possibility
Open details →Collaboration Process
A snapshot of the collaboration process we developed in our Proof of Possibility.
Open details →Alerts
Alerts are the critical 'watch-outs'—the common challenges, tensions, complexities, and areas where we learned special attention is required.
Too much emphasis on one area out of balance with the others
When stewarding governance, part of the skill is balancing focus on the mission and planned work (the why and what) with attention to governance, learning, and organising (the how). Too much emphasis on one side can disrupt group dynamics.
The mission and work provide momentum and direction, while governance, learning, and organising help manage differences, risks, tensions, disagreements, and learning. Each depends on the other, and if the balance is off, the collaboration can start to dysfunction.
Ignoring group dynamics
Group dynamics strongly influence what a group can achieve together. Ignoring these dynamics can create a false economy, where actions taken fall short of their potential.
Insights
Insights are the key discoveries that emerged from our work and point to promising pathways and core principles.
Exploring and embedding deep code shifts
Societal transformation involves rethinking how we see the world and our place in it. How will these underlying ideas shape how you work together? What approaches to power, value, ownership, accountability and risk do you want to hold? Writing these down can help keep them present and guide you through change.
Governing systems
The governing system is like the meta-structure that forms the blueprint for everyday organising systems. Governing systems clarify not only what broadly happens when things go well, but also where permission and authority ultimately lie during disagreement or rupture.
They clarify questions such as liability-holding; risk mitigation; value ownership; roles and responsibilities; and group structure. With intention, governing systems can be designed to enable the mission.
Mutually reinforcing cycles occur
When things go well, contributions amplify in a positive, virtuous cycle. Conversely, when dynamics tip and begin to deteriorate, a rapid, vicious cycle of withdrawal can take hold. A key part of the work is stewarding this balance to prevent the tip into a vicious cycle.