Fizzle out
There was lots of energy and potential at the start but that faded at the turning point of turning into a collectively agreed actionable plan
The kickoff workshop was electric. The room was buzzing with energy as our new coalition of partners mapped out the boundless potential of what we could achieve together. Everyone left feeling inspired, aligned on the big "why." But a few meetings later, that momentum has stalled. The big vision is still there, but every time we try to translate it into a concrete, actionable plan, the conversation goes in circles. Questions about who really leads, how we make decisions, what the first practical steps should be, and who is responsible for what are left unanswered. The initial excitement is fading into a frustrating sense of inertia, and we're left wondering: how do we recapture that initial spark and channel it into a shared plan that everyone feels true ownership over?
Layers of the Many-to-Many System linked to this challenge
The "Fizzle Out" challenge is often a symptom of deeper structural gaps. The following layers of the Many-to-Many System offer a more holistic way to think about the underlying patterns and needs that, when addressed, can help sustain momentum:
- Missions: Helps bridge the gap between the big vision and the immediate "what's next?" by distinguishing between the Wide and Narrow missions, providing a clear and achievable first focus.
- Ecosystem Strategy: Provides a framework for the collaborative process of deciding what to work on together, turning a broad vision into a shared strategic focus.
- Governance System: Addresses the critical questions of 'who decides?' and 'how do we decide?'—often the key blockers that cause momentum to stall.
- Organising System: Focuses on translating strategy into action by clarifying roles, responsibilities, and the day-to-day 'hum' of the work, ensuring the plan can be lived out in practice.
Tools and Examples linked to this Challenge
Moving from a powerful vision to a shared, actionable plan requires more than just good intentions—it requires practical scaffolding. The tools and examples below are designed to help with this critical transition. They offer tangible starting points for co-creating your initial strategy, defining roles, and building the momentum needed to move forward together.
Offer Canvas
Articulates activities and ideas collaborators wish to offer, whilst paying attention to capacity and energy.
Open details →
Role Cards for Flexible Governance
Supports the development of flexible power, responsibility, accountability and risk-holding.
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 processes part of the craft is in navigating the balance between focusing on the mission and the work planned, with attention to the governance, learning and organising - too much emphasis one side or the other can topple the group dynamics. The mission and work provides momentum and a vector for the work whilst the governance, learning and organising enables us to hold difference, risks, tensions, disagreement and learning. Each necessitates the other and if the balance is significantly off then the collaboration can start to dysfunction. The order of the attention we place depends on the type of collaboration and its context.
Insights
Insights are the key discoveries that emerged from our work and point to promising pathways and core principles.
Stewardship Assumptions
A key challenge for early stewards is developing appropriate ways to understand the live dynamics of the complex system in order to determine what to do next.
Stewardship Assumptions
A key challenge for early stewards is developing appropriate ways to understand the live dynamics of the complex system in order to determine what to do next.