Keys to Meeting the Challenges | Beyond Intractability

Efforts to improve governance and deal with the intractable conflict problem are extraordinarily difficult, but not impossible. Success requires attention to a number of fundamental principles.
	Principle #1: Understand the Stakes -- Over the next century, the failure to address the governance problem will present as great a threat to human welfare as a failure to deal with the other more widely-recognized threats, such as global warming and infectious disease. Understanding a problem's importance is the first step toward finding a solution.
	Principle #2: Overcome the Cynicism Barrier --- Many people give up before they start. They assume that fixing the problem of bad governance is an inevitably hopeless endeavor. This attitude must change if progress is to be made.
	Principle #3: Tackle the Tough Problems -- Efforts to deal with the most important and difficult governance problems are often lacking because people tend to focus their efforts on safer, easier initiatives. If we are going to really make progress, we have to be prepared to engage the tough problems.
	Principle #4: Take a Big Picture Approach -- Governance is a complex, multifaceted problem which requires that progress be made on each facet of the overall problem. Just as an airplane can't be expected to fly without all of the pieces, good governance requires the successful functioning of each aspect of the system.
	Principle #5: Specialize -- Big picture problems can only be successfully approached through a process of specialization and division of labor. Like the blind men trying to understand the elephant, those working on governance problems must understand how their specialized knowledge fits into the larger whole.
	Principle #6: Build Strong Coalitions -- Changing governance processes requires broader support than a simple 51% majority. To be effective, initiatives must advance the interests of a very broad cross-section of the population, and therefore be supported by that broad cross-section as well..
	Principle #7: Balance Short and Long-Term Objectives -- Improving governance is the process of small, incremental changes that make progress toward a long-term vision. It is unrealistic to expect to be able to solve large problems in one giant step.
	Principle #8: Build on Existing Knowledge -- Great ideas are commonly developed and forgotten, forcing people to go through the often unsuccessful process of trying to reinvent the wheel. One key to success is to build upon what has already been learned.