The United Nations’ Global Compact does not consider itself an instrument of regulation, but rather a voluntary dialogue forum for mutual learning in Corporate Citizenship. This article develops ideas as to how the Global Compact can better live up to its own ambitious mission. We argue that the key to successful learning is to focus on structures in two senses: (a) First, corporate citizens can best learn from each other if they succeed to identify and to freely talk about the structural conditions that drive the success – and potential failure – of their projects and activities.
(b) The Global Compact can best contribute to this process if it provides specific organisational platform structures needed for such structural learning. Against this backdrop, the article offers insights on two different levels: on the level of developing successful Global Compact projects and on the level of organizational learning at meetings of local Global Compact Networks.