The Challenge: A System Stuck in Conflict

 

This wasn’t just one organisation struggling to align—it was a network of organisations, each with its own agenda, priorities, and history. The system had been under strain for years, with deep divisions, mistrust, and conflicting interests making real progress impossible.

Attempts at collaboration repeatedly fell apart.

 

Decisions taken at the top were met with resistance at the front line. Some organisations pushed for change, while others clung to old ways of working. It wasn’t just a failure of strategy—it was a failure of trust.

Everyone agreed something had to change. But no one agreed on how.

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The Work: Creating the Conditions for Movement

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The usual approaches—restructuring, clearer governance, or top-down directives—weren’t going to cut it. The system wasn’t just misaligned; it was fundamentally fractured. Before any real progress could be made, we needed to create the conditions where these organisations could even begin to engage with each other productively.

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• We started by listening. Not just to leadership, but across the system—surfacing the tensions, fears, and hidden frustrations that had been keeping groups apart.

• We helped leaders see the system as it really was. Not as a collection of separate organisations, but as an interconnected whole where every action created ripples elsewhere.

• We created space for the conversations that had never been had. Shifting from blame and defensiveness to understanding and shared accountability.Through facilitated discussions, organisations that had spent years working in silos began to see each other differently—not as obstacles, but as essential partners in making change happen.

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The Outcome: A System That Could Finally Move Forward

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This wasn’t about quick fixes. It was about resetting relationships so real progress could begin.

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Instead of seeing change as something to resist or control, organisations started shaping it together. Fragmented priorities gave way to clearer, shared direction. People who had once avoided collaboration began stepping into it.

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For the first time in years, there was momentum—not because alignment had been imposed, but because the system itself had shifted. By addressing how these organisations related to each other, they built the foundation for meaningful, sustained change.