Written by: Jessica Beckendorf
Big, ambitious initiatives don’t usually fail because the commitment to the issue was weak. They fail in the messy middle – for example, where a strong vision runs into the realities of how institutions actually work.
If you’ve worked in multi-organization partnerships or coalitions, you’ve seen this. Alignment at the start doesn’t guarantee alignment in practice. Different perspectives, timelines, incentives, and constraints start to pull things apart. From a systems perspective, this is not a failure of commitment, it’s a design problem.
Most collaborative initiatives like coalitions exist in loosely connected systems. No one is fully in charge, and everyone is accountable to something or someone else. Without a strong relational foundation, even the best ideas stay surface-level. They sound good, but they don’t hold.
If we want partnerships that last beyond the kickoff meeting, we have to design for trust and not assume it will show up on its own. Here are five shifts that can make a difference.
Create pull, not pressure
Detailed plans can create friction in complex environments. Instead of pushing alignment through asking everyone else to get on board with a plan, focus on a shared direction people can see themselves in. When partners can connect the work to their existing priorities, engagement becomes a pull, not an obligation.
That said, vision isn’t enough. It needs structure – providing clear ways to coordinate and move work forward – so it doesn’t stay aspirational.
Don’t skip the “who are we together” work
In my experience, this is the work that many new collaborative initiatives skip. They stay at the level of coordination vs moving into the deeper work of collaboration (if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, check out our episode on Blue Box Thinking). That’s useful, but it’s not the same as building a shared identity.
Stronger partnerships take time to ask:
- Who are we in this work?
- What does it mean to act together, not just alongside each other?
- What are we building that we couldn’t build alone?
This is also where power dynamics come into play. If they’re ignored, trust stays shallow. If they’re addressed, the partnership has a chance to become more durable.
Build trust through small, real work
Start with small collaborations where there’s already some momentum. Give people ways to engage without requiring full commitment upfront:
- Try a focused project.
- Share resources on a limited effort.
- Test before scaling.
This lowers the barrier to entry and creates something tangible to build on. Small wins do more for trust than big promises.
Treat resistance as useful information
When progress stalls, it’s easy to interpret that as lack of buy-in. But resistance can point to timing issues, capacity constraints, misalignment with internal processes, or any number of other issues. If you treat it as data instead of assuming the other collaborators aren’t fully on board, it helps you adjust the design.
Instead of pushing harder or losing hope, get curious. What is this telling us about how the system actually works? The goal isn’t to eliminate resistance, it’s to learn from it.
Measure what actually matters
Many collaborative initiatives track activity: meetings held, people engaged, initiatives launched, grant dollars applied for and received. That’s easy to measure, but it doesn’t tell you if anything is changing.
Trust grows when collaborators can see real impact. That means paying attention to outcomes and lived experience, not just the number of outputs. It also means being willing to stop or adapt efforts that aren’t working, even when they’re familiar or well-intentioned.
Bringing it back to your circle of control
The entry point to systems change is relational.
Think of an issue of importance to the clients you serve. Reach out to one connection in your local community making a difference on that issue. Ask what they’re seeing that current systems are missing and explore where your work might overlap.
That’s often where momentum starts. From a simple one on one conversation that leads to something real. My favorite way to phrase this is “change happens one conversation at a time.”
Sources:
Dornfeld, B., & Miller, S.E. (2025, August 25). Building Coalitions for Change: When Good Ideas Meet Complex Systems. CFAR.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2025, July 17). Building Coalitions for Community-Led Change.
Takeuchi, M., & Parilla, J. (2025, November 20). The Coalition Imperative: A Guidebook for How Regions Can Build and Sustain Coalitions to Grow a Good-Jobs Economy. Brookings Institution
