The first six months of a coalition feel like progress. Stakeholders show up, meetings have energy, and working groups form. Then, around month seven, the cadence slips, action items linger, and the same agenda returns week after week. By month nine, the coalition that once felt unstoppable is being kept alive by one or two people sending reminder emails to rally support or spur action.
What we’re seeing in the field
The stall is almost never what people blame. It isn’t that everyone lost interest; engagement fades because the structure that worked for convening doesn’t work for delivering, and the coalition ends up doing twice the work with a diminished possibility of consequential impact.
How to spot it before it costs you time and money
The stall announces itself weeks before it sets in. Three early signals:
- Agenda déjà vu. The same items return meeting after meeting without resolution.
- Ownerless action items. Tasks belong to “the group,” which means they belong to no one.
- Quiet downgrading of decision-makers. Principals send delegates without authority, and decisions wait for full-group sign-off, which takes extra cycles to collect.
Why it happens
Many coalitions are built and function on a wide consensus. Consensus is wonderful for getting people in the room, yet it is a sub-optimal operating system for getting results. The decisions that need to happen regularly to make progress — who owns this and by what authority, by when must it be done, with what resources will be committed, and how we will measure accountability for consequential impact to whom — get treated as if they need everyone’s sign-off in order to move forward. Coalition consensus conditions need clarity, structured representation, a clear authority, and trust amongst members to support work to progress.
What actually works
Durable coalitions clearly define their decision model and structure within the first phase of formation. They keep convening for direction-setting and adjustments, and if delegates are required, those delegates have a specific accountability to represent the interests of primary coalition members to keep the work moving.
Where Convergent comes in
We help coalitions shift from consensus-based convening to delegated execution by designing governance that clarifies who can decide what and by building the trust needed for delegation to work. Ideally, we are there before momentum stalls — but we can also get you back on track if you get stuck.
If your coalition is doing more work for less clarity than it was six months ago, let’s talk.