Ecosystems for Transitions: Six Lessons from ‘Commons’

Inspiration

Mike Hoogveld

Co-founder nlmtd

Mike Hoogveld is a partner at nlmtd and an expert in future-proof organizing. With over twenty years of experience as a manager and advisor in a wide variety of organizations both domestically and internationally, Mike is also a startup mentor, conducts scientific research at Nyenrode, and teaches at various universities and business schools.

December 9, 2025

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Collaborating on Transitions: Lessons from the 'Commons'

In the second article of the Accelerating Transitions series, Mike Hoogveld examines how collaboration within ecosystems takes shape. Drawing on the principles of the ‘commons,’ he shows how sustainable transitions can be achieved through smart rules and shared ownership.

Perhaps the most important lesson from our evolutionary history is that we must collaborate to survive. This also applies today: for the major transitions we need to achieve in energy, food, and climate, collective solutions are indispensable. But collaboration is not a given. How do you do it well within a complex network of parties with diverse interests?

Welcome to the Association of Owners

Imagine you have bought a new home in a building with ten apartments, each very different in size and price. Afterward, the residents gather for a drink, and you quickly discover that they, too, are diverse – a colorful mix of young, old, poor, rich, singles, couples, and families. Some are home all day, others are at work, and a few use it only occasionally as a pied-à-terre.

As soon as the building is complete, they must decide together on parking spaces, garden maintenance, cleaning, noise rules, and paint colors. Interests clash, resources differ, but one thing is sure: without agreements and mutual coordination, it becomes chaotic. The strength of collaboration lies not in uniformity but in the good organization of differences.

I Stood By and Watched

That metaphor easily translates to our planet. Here too, we share collective ownership: air, water, energy, space. As with that apartment complex, sustainable management of those resources requires cooperation and shared responsibility. But how do you mobilize people and organizations when the problem seems too big? Think of a festival site full of waste. One extra cup doesn’t seem to make a difference. This is known as the bystander effect, named after the phenomenon where no one intervenes when someone is in danger on the street because everyone thinks someone else will. In other words, ‘I stood by and watched.’ So, how can we effectively collaborate to achieve the above changes from a common interest?

Achieving Transitions Collectively

First, it is important to understand how collaboration for our planet and society is organized. Henk Kievit discussed a very insightful model for this during a meeting of the ecosystem and education ‘Public Infrastructure in Transition’ at Nyenrode Business University. This model shows that there are three ordering structures: formal versus informal (whether something is regulated in a contract), profit versus nonprofit, and public versus private. There are four domains: the government, the market, the community (such as households), and the enclosed ‘civil society.’ The latter includes, for example, NGOs, philanthropic institutions, churches, and volunteer organizations.[i]

Just as the residents of an apartment building differ in their goals, resources, interests, and principles, these four domains differ in their goals, resources, interests, and principles. However, achieving major transitions, such as in energy, climate adaptation, and food, requires close cooperation between all these domains. Beyond the technical and substantive issues, this cooperation complicates such transitions. It is an ecosystem in which no single entity holds central leadership. Think, for example, of all the parties involved in generating, transporting, and delivering gas, electricity, and heat. Together, they must manage the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, guided by the principle that ‘the store is open during renovation.’ There are numerous bottlenecks, including the need to expand and rebuild networks amid congestion and shortages of people, space, and materials.

How can they solve this puzzle? In other words, how can they optimally allocate their scarce resources across this portfolio of goals, objectives, and problems to achieve sustainable solutions? Transitions, therefore, require orchestration, a director’s role. But how do you organize something like that?

The Principles of Successful 'Commons'

A valuable source of inspiration for this is the work of Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economics. She studied how people collectively manage natural resources, so-called ‘commons,’ such as fisheries, forests, rivers, or a collective irrigation system.

Individual fishermen, for example, have an incentive to catch as many fish as possible, thinking that if they don’t, someone else will. Without management and regulation, this non-sustainable behavior depletes the fish stock. In addition to overuse, the survival of common resources is also vulnerable to issues such as congestion, pollution, or destruction.

Ostrom concluded that there are eight design principles for managing these commons to sustain their use indefinitely.[ii] And as you will see below, most of these are also helpful for the governance of ecosystems that need to realize transitions.

Define Boundaries: It must be clearly defined who has the right to extract something from or add something to the ecosystem. It must also be determined what the boundaries and purpose are: where they begin and end. A strict demarcation of this prevents ‘free riding’ by outsiders and facilitates the distribution of responsibilities within the group.
Adapt Rules to Goals and Circumstances: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to agreeing on rules for using and contributing to the ecosystem. These must be adapted to the specific context and the needs of the participants, including the available technology and funding.
Collective Decision-Making and Self-Enforcement: All parties within the ecosystem can participate in the decision-making process about the rules that apply to them. This promotes a sense of ownership and involvement. This is crucial for enforcement, which must be carried out by the members themselves or by persons they have appointed for this purpose.
Graduated Sanctions for Violators: If participants do not comply with the agreed-upon rules, this must be addressed consistently through a system of sanctions. These must be reasonable and fair—tailored to the severity of the violation and the circumstances of the violator—but they should also become progressively more severe as the violations become more serious.
Establish Conflict Mechanisms: There must be cheap and accessible ways to resolve disputes within the ecosystem. Such a system helps resolve disagreements quickly and strengthens trust among ecosystem members.
Respect Autonomy: The ecosystem must receive sufficient recognition and autonomy to establish and enforce its own rules. This is without interference from external authorities—whether at the local or (inter)national level—who may not be aware of the specific content and circumstances.

In addition to these six principles, thriving ecosystems must be adaptable, able to quickly and flexibly adapt to changing circumstances. This adaptability is possible only if there is mutual trust, genuine reciprocity, transparent communication, and cooperation among members. This makes living together in an apartment building more enjoyable and easier.

Towards a Sustainable Future!

Want to know more about successfully realizing transitions? Contact us.

[i] Kievit, H., Van Dijk, G. en Spruyt, B.J (2008). De stille revolutie van social venturing entrepreneurs. Holland Management Review, 120, p 22.

[ii] Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press, pp. 90-102.

Samen bouwen aan een duurzame toekomst

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