Within multi-stakeholder initiatives (short: MSIs), companies aim to set regulations for themselves that they want to collectively and voluntarily follow to improve social and environmental issues in the absence of globally binding rules. This paper explores how a shift from strategic to communicative action is possible within MSIs to allow for sustainable organising. To understand the role that brokers play in this process, we draw on two complementary MSIs—the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (short: TP) and the Fossil Free Sweden Initiative (short: FFS). An analysis of these cases reveals that a commitment to substantive collaboration in the absence of external pressure is only possible if deliberation is reached between different stakeholder groups. Furthermore, it shows us that this shift from strategic action (commitment due to external pressure) to communicative action (commitment due to deliberation) is tied to individuals within the process. Our study provides in-depth insights into the literature on brokerage processes within MSIs, as well as to the Habermasian stream of literature on MSIs within organisation theory.