Systems become successful when they are aligned around common values and interests – as seen in sports, shopping, travel, and food. In the process, these systems tend to produce information tools that support the activity – such as sports news, advertisements, maps, stock exchanges, indexes, catalogs and websites. In the case of environmental concerns, there is no such collective information framework at this time. Throughout the industry, decision makers have no easy way to know what eachother are doing and thinking, collectively. There is no pervasive framework for decision making, despite the high levels of concern and alignment around core environmental issues.

This may be simple to fix!

What’s the problem here?

• Many agencies and corporations do not clearly publicize their real objectives regarding environmental outcomes.  
• The public does not have a good way to find out what outcomes these parties are actively pursuing.  
• A discovery and presentation of those objectives, across all sectors, would facilitate awareness, alignment and collective accountability.
• Without shared accountability, positive outcomes are unlikely.

This approach has no pre-requisites, and can be started up anywhere, any time, by any parties.  In most cases, the resources, methods and policies needed to move forward are in place already.  The main problem with environmental concerns lies with implementation, coordination, and follow-through. In the absence of such coordination, other motives that are better aligned, such as fear or profits, will determine outcomes.

Actual conditions in the real world, and reasons for such, are very poorly understood in most cases. Activists, analysts, and the general public rarely look to ground-level implementation when they want better results.  Instead, they look towards legislation, policy, politics, leadership, funding, news media, administration, etc.  Rarely do they know what is actually happening in the real world, where case managers sign permits, and programs interact hands-on with problems. But that is the place where results are ultimately determined.   

The following pages will present a simple method to improve collaboration, using tools that have proven effective in many other systems. Simple, but not necessarily easy.

The first chapter is an introduction to what we are calling the ‘Global Re-alignment Process’, or GRAP.