When a challenge depends on actors you do not control, incentives you cannot align internally, and commitments that must be made across institutional boundaries, treating it as organizational work becomes counterproductive.
An iceberg is a useful metaphor here.
From the surface, an iceberg looks manageable. Its visible mass suggests scale, effort, and risk. But what determines whether you collide with it or navigate around it lies below the waterline. Most of the structure is hidden. Most of the force shaping outcomes is unseen.
Many leadership teams treat ecosystem challenges as if only the visible portion matters. They refine strategy, reorganize portfolios, launch initiatives, and assign accountability. When progress stalls, they push harder.
The cost of this approach is rarely dramatic. It accumulates quietly.
The first cost is burnout among your most committed people. These are the leaders and staff who care deeply, volunteer for task forces, and keep showing up. When the challenge resurfaces again and again, they begin to question whether the organization is being honest about what it can realistically accomplish alone.
The second cost is stakeholder disengagement. External partners sense when a challenge requires shared leadership but is being managed internally. At first, they stay polite. Over time, participation thins. Energy fades without open resistance.
A third cost is erosion of leadership credibility. Each new plan signals effort. But when outcomes do not change, leaders begin to absorb blame for forces that sit outside their span of control.
A fourth cost is executive churn. Responsibility shifts. New champions are appointed. The appearance of action replaces progress.
This is not poor execution. It is misdiagnosis.
Inside organizations, leadership is about clarity, prioritization, and accountability. Across ecosystems, leadership shifts toward orchestration, legitimacy, and trust. The work is less about directing action and more about creating the conditions for others to move together.
Not every complex challenge should become an ecosystem initiative. Many should not. Knowing when not to convene matters.
But when the bulk of the challenge sits below the waterline, continuing to push internally only deepens the collision.
Strategy remains essential. But when it is no longer sufficient, it is time to give serious consideration to an ecosystem solution.
If you are carrying a challenge that keeps resurfacing and want a sounding board, feel free to write me. You do not need a contract to have a conversation.
