What This Blog is About

Across industries and disciplines, the landscape is populated with multi-stakeholder approaches to addressing issues important across organizations.  They range from the small, targeted and informal to large coalitions and alliances that bring together dozens of diverse stakeholders.  They are often comprised of industry leaders – or leaders of specific disciplines – non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academics, researchers and other experts.  Often, it’s combinations of the above. They can be funded by the participants, industry as a third party or philanthropic organizations.  Many have hybrid funding.  All are organized to address issues and challenges that are common across participants, even when they take conflicting approaches, or are otherwise competitors.

As someone that has led, participated in, created and even ended such collaborations over a few decades, I believe these collective approaches can be valuable and even necessary. However, experience shows that the effectiveness of such collaborations varies widely.

It’s always intrigued me – and occasionally frustrated me – why some multi-stakeholder approaches succeed, while others never gain any momentum, and still others start strong but ultimately underachieve.

This blog will explore what makes these collaborations work best, what gets in the way, and what approaches are most effective in establishing and maintaining successful multi-stakeholder efforts.

I’ll share my direct experiences and opinions.  I’ll share the feedback of others. And I may occasionally turn things over to others to share their thoughts and experiences.

My goal is not to judge the good and the bad. I may not attribute specific individuals or even organizations to avoid unnecessary drama.

My goal is learning and improving.  I may be known as an expert on this topic but I’m also still learning from successes and failures and the strategies, actions and issues behind them. 

I’m hoping you’ll join me on that journey.