Unripe conditions
We had great ambitions and possibility for our place but the conditions just weren’t present in the major institutions to warrant trying.
Our coalition had a powerful, shared vision and a clear plan for what we wanted to achieve in our city. We even had champions for change inside the major institutions we need on board—local government, key funders, established organisations. The problem isn't their willingness; it's the systems they operate within. Our partners are themselves encumbered by institutional processes not built for this kind of work. Rigid procurement rules, inflexible funding cycles, and traditional legal frameworks make it nearly impossible for them to engage in the emergent, trust-based way our collaboration requires. It feels less like we're failing and more like the operating systems of our potential partners are incompatible with ours. Pushing forward now seems destined to fail, wasting energy and burning goodwill. How do we know when the conditions are truly "unripe," and what is our role: do we wait, or do we start a different kind of work to help our partners make the case for change internally?
Connecting Learnings to this challenge
Sometimes, the biggest barriers to a collaboration’s success are not internal, but systemic and institutional. Recognising when the broader ecosystem's processes are unreceptive is a crucial strategic judgment. The following insights and alerts offer considerations for assessing this systemic readiness and thinking about the "field-building" work that might be needed before a core mission can be pursued.
Areas of the Many-to-Many System that aim to address this challenge
"Unripe Conditions" demand a strategic focus on the broader ecosystem rather than just the collaboration itself. The following layers are particularly relevant for this kind of work:
- Ecosystem Strategy: This is the core layer for this challenge, providing a framework to map, understand, and strategise how to influence the broader system and its key institutions.
- Deep Code Shifts: This provides a lens for understanding the underlying "deep codes" of the external institutions that are creating resistance, helping to diagnose the root causes of the "unripeness."
- Missions: The Wide-Boundary Mission can be used as a powerful narrative tool to engage external actors and support internal champions, helping to "ripen" the conditions over time.
Stewardship Approaches: This work requires a particular kind of stewardship—one focused on diplomacy, narrative change, and long-term relationship building to support partners navigating their own internal bureaucracies.
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.
Spotting patterns in your context: diagnostic tool
A diagnostic tool to analyse patterns within your context and to suggest process considerations.
Open details →Alerts
Alerts are the critical 'watch-outs'—the common challenges, tensions, complexities, and areas where we learned special attention is required.
Institutional deep code blockers
If the actors with the most power in the system don’t have alignment to the deep code in their internal structures then they can override possibility for the whole collaboration.
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.