ABSTRACT
Sometimes the common ground will be obvious. Sometimes it will be easy to agree at a vague and visionary level, but less clear at a grainier level. Even when everyone wants to find common ground, it is not easy! There was a lengthy series of steps to agree common goals and vision in the Sustainable Shipping Initiative. The Corporate Leaders Group on climate change is coordinated by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Collaborating was more difficult for landowners, because being a very diverse group they don't have a natural representative body, but we needed to keep our steering group small so we couldn't have them all in that group. Collaboration only happens if there's something important that people want to get out of it, but they need to be willing to reassess what they want to get out of it, in response to what the other collaborators want.
