• In personal behavior, initiative is the ability and tendency to initiate: to start an action, including coming up with a proposal and giving or helping without first being requested to do so
• Initiative (organization), a readiness to embark on a new business venture
• In military operations, "taking the initiative" means generating a series of threats to which the opponent must respond

Fiction

• Avengers: The Initiative
  Avengers: The Initiative
  Avengers: The Initiative was a comic book series from Marvel Comics. Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage with artwork initially by Stefano Caselli, Steve Uy and Harvey Tolibao, the series dealt with the aftermath of Marvel's Civil War crossover Avengers: The Initiative was a comic book series...
  
  , a comic book series from Marvel Comics
• Civil War: The Initiative
  Civil War: The Initiative
  "Civil War: The Initiative" is the name of a comics crossover storyline as well as a one-shot comic book starting this event, published by Marvel Comics...
  
  , a comics crossover storyline from Marvel Comics
• Fifty State Initiative
  Fifty State Initiative
  The Fifty State Initiative, often referred to as simply The Initiative, is a fictional governmental plan that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics, in particular those related to The Avengers...
  
  , a fictional government program in the Marvel Comics Universe
• Initiative (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), a fictional secret militarian bi partisian government organization in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The Dharma Initiative, a fictional organization from the television show Lost
• "The Initiative
  The Initiative
  The Initiative is a fictional secret government organization in the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.-Origins:...
  
  ", the seventh episode of season 4 of the univesee television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Games

• In poker, initiative is the ability to make continuation bet after having raised preflop
• Initiative (chess)
  Initiative (chess)
  Initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored. He thus puts his opponent in the position of having to use his turns responding to threats rather than making his own. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver his pieces into more and...
  
  , the ability in chess to make attacks that must be responded to
• initiative games, activities used for team building
  Team building
  Team building refers to a wide range of activities, presented to businesses, schools, sports teams, religious or nonprofit organizations designed for improving team performance...
  
   to challenge a group with a structured task
• initiative (role-playing games)
  Initiative (role-playing games)
  In role-playing games and some table-top wargames, a character's initiative is a statistic which determines the order in which player characters take actions, especially during combat or other forms of conflict resolution....
  
  , a number which determines the order in which characters take actions, especially during combat