I was recently surprised to discover that there is yet another initiative being started focused on mobilizing action on a particular sustainability topic in a particular audience that already has one global group working. They have a fancy website, a new budget, big launch ceremony, and media attention. They want to recreate all the work the first group has already spend years doing.
Why? Why tell us again and again about the need for action. When are we going to get to the action? Everyone wants to know more details about how, they have already signed up and understand the why…
It seems to be a lot more prestigious to start new initiatives and talk very seriously about why something is important. It is much less sexy to actually do it. Problem is, you get people all excited about the role they can play in doing something important and then leave them without any guidance on how to actually move forward. At a certain point the energy runs out and they return to doing what they have always done, but feeling exhausted and down.
I am not against starting new organizations at all. Of course this can be really important. However when a global intiative already exsists, why not focus your money and energy on making that initiative as powerful and useful as it can be?
