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The global problem-solving paradox

As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I spend much of my time speaking with world leaders and taking the pulse of global trends. It’s clear to me that we are at a defining moment in international relations. Global decision making is plagued by gridlock – and a fundamental paradox lies at the heart of it.

On the one hand, many of today’s global leaders recognize our common threats – COVID, climate, the unregulated development of new technologies. They agree that something needs to be done about them. Yet that common understanding is not matched by common action.

Indeed, divides keep deepening.

We see them everywhere: in the unfair and unequal distribution of vaccines; in a global economic system rigged against the poor; in the utterly inadequate response to the climate crisis; in digital technology and a media landscape that profit from division; and in growing unrest and conflict around the world.

So if the world agrees on the diagnosis of these common problems, why is it unable to effectively treat them?

I see two fundamental reasons.

First, because foreign policy often becomes a projection of internal politics.

As a former Prime Minister, I know that despite good intentions, international affairs can be hijacked by domestic politics. Perceived national interests can easily trump the larger global good.

This impulse is understandable, even if it is wrong-headed in instances where solidarity is in a country’s self-interest.

Vaccines are a prime example.

Everyone understands that a virus like COVID-19 does not respect national borders. We need universal vaccination to reduce the risk of new and more dangerous variants emerging and affecting everyone, in every country.

Instead of prioritizing vaccines for all through a global vaccination plan, governments have acted to safeguard their people. But that is only half a strategy.

Of course, governments must ensure the protection of their own people. But unless they work simultaneously to vaccinate the world, national vaccination plans could be rendered useless as new variants emerge and spread.

Second, many of today’s global institutions or frameworks are outdated or simply weak and the necessary reforms are impeded by geo-political divides.

For example, the authority of the World Health Organization is nowhere near what is required to coordinate the response to global pandemics.

At the same time, international institutions with more power are either paralyzed by division – like the Security Council – or undemocratic – like many of our international financial institutions.

In short — global governance is failing at precisely the moment when the world should be coming together to solve global problems

We need to act together in the national and global self-interest, to protect critical global public goods, like public health and a livable climate, that support humanity’s wellbeing.

Such reforms are essential if we are to deliver on common aspirations for our collective global goals of peace, sustainable development, human rights and dignity for all.

This is a difficult and complex exercise that must take into account questions of national sovereignty.

But doing nothing is not an acceptable option. The world desperately needs more effective and democratic international mechanisms that can solve people’s problems.

As the pandemic has taught us, our fates are tied. When we leave anyone behind, we risk leaving everyone behind. The most vulnerable regions, countries and people are the first victims of this paradox in global policy. But everyone, everywhere is directly threatened.

The good news is that we can do something about our global challenges.

Problems created by humanity can be solved by humanity.

Last September, I issued a report on these issues. Our Common Agenda is a starting point; a roadmap to gather the world together to tackle these governance challenges and reinvigorate multilateralism for the 21st century.

Change won’t be easy, nor will it happen overnight. But we can begin by finding areas of consensus and moving in the direction of progress.

This is our greatest test because so much is at stake.

We are already seeing the consequences. As people start to lose trust in the ability of institutions to deliver, they also risk losing faith in the values that underlie those institutions.

In every corner of the world, we see an erosion of trust and what I fear is

the emergence of a twilight of shared values.

Injustice, inequality, mistrust, racism and discrimination are casting dark shadows across every society.

We must restore human dignity and human decency and respond to people’s anxieties with answers.

In the face of growing inter-connected threats, enormous human suffering, and shared risks, we have an obligation to speak up and act to put out the fire.

António Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Blog originally posted on Scoop World.  

Top 20 Current Global Issues We Must Address

What are the most pressing issues in the world today? What will demand the most attention in the next 5, 10, and 20+ years? In this article, which frequently refers to the World Economic Forum’s 17th Edition of the Global Risks Report, we’ll highlight 20 current global issues we must address, including issues related to climate change, COVID-19, social rights, and more. While it’s hardly a comprehensive discussion, it’s a solid introduction to the kinds of concerns facing our world today.

#1. Poverty

In fall 2022, the World Bank will update the International Poverty Line from $1.90 to $2.15. This means anyone living on less than $2.15 is in “extreme poverty.” Why the change? Increases in the costs of food, clothing, and shelter between 2011-2017 make the “real value of $2.15 in 2017 prices equal to $1.90 in 2011 prices. As for the World Bank’s goal to reduce extreme poverty to 3% or less by 2030, the pandemic has made it even harder. Extreme poverty isn’t the only poverty we have to contend with. 62% of the global population lives on less than $10/day. While there’s been progress over the years, the end of poverty is still far off.

Learn more about tackling poverty with an online course: Poverty & Population: How Demographics Shape Policy (Columbia University)

#2. Climate change

The IPCC released its sixth report in 2022. In its summary for policy-makers, the report’s authors outlined a series of near-term, mid-term, and long-term risks. If global warming reaches 1.5°C in the near term (2021-2040), it would cause “unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards,” as well as “multiple risks to ecosystems and humans.” In the long term, climate change will present major health issues, premature deaths, risks to cities and settlements , and other dangers. Mitigation is desperately needed – and fast. Because of climate change ’s connection to other issues on this list, it’s one of the most serious challenges facing humanity.

Learn more about climate change with an online course: Science and Engineering of Climate Change (EDHEC Business School)

#3. Food insecurity

According to the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises , which is produced by the Global Network against Food Crises, the number of people in crisis or worse is the highest it’s been in the six years since the report has existed. Close to 193 million people were experiencing acute food insecurity in 2021, which is an increase of almost 40 million since 2020. This represents a staggering 80% increase since 2016. Causes include “economic shocks,” like an increase in global food prices. Domestic food price inflation in low-income countries also rose a lot. “Weather-related disasters” are also a big driver. For 15.7 million people in 15 countries, it was the primary driver of acute food insecurity.

Learn more about food insecurity with an online course: Feeding the World (University of Pennsylvania)

#4. Refugee rights

According to UNHCR, the war in Ukraine sparked the fastest-growing refugee crisis since WWII. Almost 6 million (as of May 10, 2022) people have fled. The UNCHR’s Refugee Brief , which compiles the week’s biggest refugee stories, has recently described situations in places like Somalia, where thousands of people were displaced due to severe drought. Between January and mid-April, more than 36,000 refugees from Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso arrived in Niger. These are only a few examples of the refugee crises, which endangers already marginalized groups – like women and children – and puts them at an increased risk of trafficking , violence, and death.

Learn more about refugee rights with an online course: Refugees in the 21st Century (University of London)

#5. COVID-19

The WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2022. It will continue to be a major issue for the world. The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2022 discusses COVID’s effects at length , including major economic recovery disparities and social erosion. According to a January 2022 article from NPR , there are also issues with vaccinations as many countries continue to have trouble getting doses. Distribution, vaccine hesitancy, healthcare systems, and other problems also factor into low vaccination rates. While we may never know the exact impact, the WHO estimates that between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, there were around 14.9 million excess deaths linked to COVID-19.

Learn more about the impact of COVID-19 with an online course: Life After COVID-19: Get Ready for our Post-Pandemic Future (Institute for the Future)

#6. Future pandemic preparation and response

COVID-19 taught the world the importance of prepardeness. In a Harvard blog , Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, outlined the lessons the world should take to heart. The first: science has to guide policy. The politicization of the pandemic led to a lot of unnecessary damage. Another lesson is that science must pair with equity or it can actually make inequalities worse. This is obvious when looking at how low-income countries struggled to get the vaccines while wealthier countries stocked up. More resilient healthcare systems are also a must, as well as more coherent, global plans on how to respond. The world must also invest in research on contagious diseases, zoonotic diseases, the effectiveness of outbreak responses, and more.

Learn more about future pandemic response with an online course: Pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response (Politecnico di Milano)

#7. Healthcare

The healthcare industry has experienced major shifts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the World Economic Forum, there’s been new investments and innovations, especially from the technology and telehealth sectors. In 2021, $44 billion was spent on health innovation. The world will be seeing the effects of these innovations for years to come, though equity will no doubt be a major issue. In places like the United States, the pandemic also reaffirmed how broken healthcare systems can be. In an MIT News blog , Andrea Campbell, a professor of political science, says the pandemic revealed a “dire need” for investments in public-health infrastructure, as well as a need to expand healthcare access and insurance coverage.

Learn more about health inequity issues with an online course: Addressing Racial Health Inequity in Healthcare (University of Michigan)

#8. Mental health

Globally, almost 1 billion people have some form of mental disorder. The pandemic made the world’s mental health worse. According to a scientific brief from the WHO , there’s been a 25% increase in anxiety and depression worldwide. Causes include social isolation, fear of sickness, grief, and financial anxieties. Health workers were also severely impacted, as well as young women and girls. The brief also highlights how the pandemic disrupted many mental health services, including services for substance abuse. Countries need to ensure access to mental health services as part of their COVID-19 recovery plans and beyond. It’s an economic decision, as well. The Lancet states that anxiety and depression alone cost the global economy around $1 trillion a year.

Learn more about mental health with an online course: The Science of Well-Being (Yale University)

#9. Disability rights

According to the WHO , over 1 billion people have some form of disability. Half can’t afford healthcare. They’re also more likely to live in poverty than those without a disability, have poorer health outcomes, and have less access to work and education opportunities. Human Rights Watch lists other discriminations disabled people face, such as an increased risk of violence. There’s been progress regarding disability rights, but many countries lack strong protections. The world still has a long way to go to ensure equality for those with disabilities.

Learn more about disability rights with an online courses: Disability Awareness and Support (University of Pittsburgh)

#10. LGBTQ+ rights

Members of the LGBTQ+ community face discrimination in many forms. According to Amnesty International , discrimination can target sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics. Even in more progressive countries like the United States, people face violence and discrimination. According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were proposed in 2022. At least a dozen states are considering legislation that forbids schools from discussing or using a curriculum that covers sexual orientation and gender identity. Considering the United States’ influence in the world, this attack on LGBTQ+ rights will likely have consequences that need to be addressed.

Learn more about LGBTQ+ issues with an online courses .

#11. Reproductive justice

Reproductive justice – which encompasses more than just abortion rights – is threatened by legislation, lack of funding, lack of education, and restricted healthcare access. In most places, wealth is a big determinant of whether a person can access reproductive services. It’s better in some places than others, but as we’ve seen with other issues on this list, even “progressive” countries like the United States are experiencing major shifts. In June 2022, the Supreme Court is expected to overrule Roe v. Wade , a milestone court case that protected a pregnant woman’s right to abortion. The impact would be immediate and will likely influence other countries.

Learn more about reproductive justice and women’s rights: International Women’s Health and Human Rights (Stanford University)

#12. Children’s rights

Children are a very vulnerable group. In 2019, around 5.2 million children under five from mostly preventable and treatable causes. 2.4 million were newborns under 28 days old. Leading causes include preterm birth complications, pneumonia, and malaria. According to UNICEF, the climate crisis also represents a severe threat to kids. Around 1 billion kids live in “extremely high-risk countries” that are hit by the worst effects of climate change. 920 kids have trouble accessing clean water and 600 million are exposed to vector-borne diseases like malaria. Child labor also remains an issue. At the beginning of 2020, around 160 million were forced into labor while COVID-19 put 9 million more kids at risk. That’s almost 1 in 10 children globally. Almost half are in dangerous environments. As is often the case, the other issues on this list – climate change, poverty, COVID, gender equality, etc – factor into children’s rights.

Learn more about children’s rights: Children’s Human Rights – An Interdisciplinary Introduction (University of Geneva)

#13. Gender equality

Global gender equality has gradually improved over the years, but data from the 2021 Global Gender Report shows that the end of the global gender gap is still 135 years away. The pandemic played a huge role in reversing positive trends as women were hit harder financially. According to Oxfam , women experienced a 5% job loss while men experienced 3.9%. That means women lost about $800 million in 2020. This is a low estimate since it doesn’t count the informal economy, which includes millions of women. Women are also more likely to live in poverty, more affected by gender-based violence, and more affected by climate change.

Learn more about gender equality: Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design (University of Toronto)

#14. Cybersecurity

The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2022 (page 9) listed cybersecurity vulnerabilities as a concern. The reason is rapid digitalization, which was triggered in part by COVID-19. Many “advanced economies” are now at a higher risk for cyberattacks. GRPS respondents identified cybersecurity failure as a critical short-term risk. In 2020, malware and ransomware attacks went up by 358% and 435%. There are a few reasons for this, including better (and easier) attack methods and poor governance. Cyberattacks have a swath of serious consequences and erode public trust. As countries become more dependent on digitalization, their cybersecurity needs to keep up.

Learn more about cybersecurity: IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate (IBM)

#15. Disinformation

Rapid digitalization comes with many issues, including the lightning-fast spread of disinformation. The WEF report describes deepfakes, an accessible AI technology, and its potential to sway elections and other political outcomes. Disinformation doesn’t need to be sophisticated to be successful, however. Through social media posts and videos, twelve anti-vax activists were responsible for almost ⅔ of all anti-vaccine content on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Their content flooded the internet with the type of harmful, fear-mongering disinformation that played a significant role in vaccine hesitancy and political radicalization. Because disinformation travels faster online than the truth, it’s a global issue that should be addressed.

Learn more about tackling disinformation: Communicating Trustworthy Information in the Digital World (University of Rotterdam)

#16. Freedom of the press

According to the Varieties of Democracy Institute (as reported in The Economist ), about 85% of people live in a country where press freedom has gone down in the past 5 years. After peaking at .65 in the early 2000s and 2011, the global average dropped to .49 in 2021. Major countries like China, India, Russia, Brazil, and Turkey saw significant declines. Journalists and news organizations face threats like violence, imprisonment, lack of funding, and coordinated online attacks and harassment. A free press is essential to a functioning democracy. Without press freedom, all human rights are at risk.

Learn more about freedom of expression: Human Rights for Open Societies (Utrecht University)

#17. Debt crises

In the WEF Global Risks Report (page 7), respondents named debt crises as one of the most pressing issues over the next decade, though respondents believe they will become most serious in just 3-5 years. COVID-19 is a big reason why. Government stimulus was necessary, but many countries are now left with debt burdens. For corporate and public finances in large economies, debt burdens can lead to defaults, bankruptcies, insolvency, and more. This is a far-reaching issue as it affects budgets for areas like healthcare and green energy.

Learn more about the debt: Finance for everyone – Debt (McMaster University)

#18. Corruption

Corruption encompasses a host of actions such as bribery, election manipulation, fraud, and state capture. The World Bank Group names corruption as a barrier to ending extreme poverty and “boosting shared prosperity” for the poorest populations. When it comes to addressing poverty, climate change, healthcare, gender equality, and more, corruption gets in the way. Because corruption is a global problem, global solutions are necessary. Reform, better accountability systems, and open processes will all help.

Learn more about tackling corruption: What is Corruption: Anti-Corruption and Compliance (University of Pennsylvania)

#19. Authoritarianism

According to Freedom House, global democracy is eroding. That includes countries with long-established democracies. In their 2022 report, the organization reveals that global freedom has been declining for the past 16 years. 60 countries faced declines in the last year. Only 25 saw improvements. Only 20% of the global population lives in Free countries. China, Russia, and other authoritarian countries have gained more power in the international system, while countries with established democracies – like the United States – are losing their freedoms. What can be done? Freedom House says success “requires a bold, sustained response that establishes support for democracy and countering authoritarianism.” Governments and citizens engage and stand for democracy.

Learn more about tackling authoritarianism: Citizenship and the Rule of Law (University of London)

#20. Global cooperation

Addressing the issues in this article is not an easy task. True progress is only possible through global cooperation, a fact which is woven through the WEF report. Everything from addressing cybersecurity threats to humanitarian emergencies to protecting democracy depends on strong cooperation between countries. As the report says in its preface: “Restoring trust and fostering cooperation within and between countries will be crucial to addressing these challenges and preventing the world from drifting further apart.” The challenges threatening global cooperation are just as clear as the need, however, which makes it one of the most serious issues of the day.

Learn more about global cooperation: Global Diplomacy: the United Nations in the World

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Social Change 101: Meaning, Examples, Learning Opportunities

Introduction to Global Problems

What are global problems.

Global problems are not just important problems, or problems that affect many people. Rather they are those problems that affect the whole of the planet, and potentially all of the people who live on it. Climate change is one clear example that springs to mind quickly. This is because the consequences of humanly-generated changes in the atmosphere will, albeit in different ways according to region, affect everyone on the planet. In other words, the consequences are universal. Moreover, unless we profoundly change our collective behaviour, climate change may well result in irreversible changes in the climatic conditions of life – a measure of the deep vulnerability of human society in the face of this issue. And it is easy to see that there will be no easy solution to the problem: the causes of the present situation are clearly related to our economic system, our attitudes to nature, our political organisation, our technological capacities and preferences, and our uses of resources. Solutions will involve not just all communities and every country, but solutions will necessarily involve cooperation between all, rather than individual approaches. In other words, the example of climate change suggests that global problems are complex, intractable, and make human society as a whole very vulnerable.

Robert E. Horn, The Climate Policy Labyrinth Info-Mural [ Original image  (PDF, 1 Mb)]

Other examples of global problems of this scale and with these characteristics would include weapons of mass destruction; the violation of the human security of several billions of the world’s poor, and the consequences of the conditions of their lives for the rest of the world; failures and deficits of global governance, especially when set beside the largely unregulated pressures of economic and cultural globalisation; resource depletion, especially that of energy resources, on a scale and in a manner that both unsustainable and profoundly inequitable; the degradation of natural environments as a result of economic activities, including the oceans, forests and soils; the physical, social and psycho-cultural consequences of unprecedented and still accelerating development of megacities; and cultural collisions within and across national borders generated by globalisation and claims to the primacy or universal superiority of one version of reason and ethics.

This is a very incomplete listing, and there could be many other such lists. In  High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them , Jean-Francois Rischard identifies  twenty global problems , comparable to those just mentioned, and argues that

Roughly a third of these have to do with how we share our planet (burning environmental issues); another third of which relate to how we share our humanity (urgent economic and social issues requiring a worldwide coalition for their effective solution); with a final third having to do with how we share our rulebook (important regulatory challenges urgently requiring a minimum critical mass of global rules to prevent free-riding and other negative consequences).

One key characteristic of global problems is that they are inter-linked in complex, and often unrecognised, ways.  Jared Diamond , in the conclusion to his  Collapse , provides another list of twelve problems of “unsustainability”. Such a list, he notes, seems to imply that the problems are separate, and should be analysed separately. In fact, Diamond argues,

they are linked: one problem exacerbates another or makes its solution more difficult.  For example, population growth affects all eleven other problems; more people means more deforestation, more toxic chemicals, more demand for wild fish, etc.  The energy problem is linked to other problems because use of fossil fuels for energy contributes heavily to greenhouse gases, the combating of soil fertility losses by using synthetic fertilizers requires energy to make the fertilizers, fossil fuel scarcity increases our interest in nuclear energy which poses potentially the biggest “toxic” problem of all in case of an accident, and fossil fuel scarcity also makes it more expensive to solve our freshwater problems by using energy to desalinize ocean water.   Depletion of fisheries and other wild food sources puts more pressure on livestock, crops, and aquaculture to replace them, thereby leading to more topsoil losses and more eutrophication from agriculture and aquaculture.  Problems of deforestation, water shortage, and soil degradation in the Third World foster wars there and drive legal asylum seekers and illegal emigrants to the First World from the Third World.

This interlinking of issues, or complex interdependency of problems, has implications for both the way we think about these issues – our forms of knowledge – and the way we might go about beginning to solve them. Diamond remarks:

People often ask, “What is the single most important environmental problem facing the world today?” A flip answer would be, “The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!”  That flip answer is essentially correct, because any of the dozen problems if unsolved would do us grave harm, and because they all interact with each other.  If we solved eleven of the problems, but not the 12th, we would still be in trouble, whichever was the problem that remained unsolved.  We have to solve them all.

Global problems are highly interdependent, often in non-linear ways. Their character and interdependence is such that they can only be solved jointly and simultaneously. These include climate change and energy insecurity, infectious diseases and the cultural dislocations of uneven, unequal and structurally contradictory processes of globalisation, apparently rapidly escalating nuclear proliferation, the destruction of habitat and biodiversity and the rapid deepening of chemical pollution, illegal drugs, increasing and deepening poverty across particular regions, and the failings of our global institutions of governance and finance, just to take a subset of the whole. Clearly they are interactive, most likely in ways we have hardly begun to think about.

The salient key characteristics are inherently transnational in both their causes and their consequences; that they are set to interact in ways we may well not anticipate – such as climate change and infectious disease; and that they are already giving rise to perceptible new forms of threat to both societies.

In our view, global problems exhibit characteristics which make them global rather than national or local in nature.  Global problems may exhibit linkage between cause and effect across societal levels from global to local. Global problems also reveal a disjuncture between cause and effect when the driving forces are highly centralized and concentrated both institutionally and spatially (and therefore are exogenous to most of humanity who nonetheless experience the effects of this change). Other global problems are the result of highly distributed and decentralized driving forces so diffuse yet cumulatively powerful that the resulting overall impact is qualitative even though it passes unnoticed except at the local level.

Often, global problems are multi-dimensional, and drive pervasive change driven by interrelationships across superficially segmented problems or disparate issues or levels of governance. Global problems may be the result of multi-directional causes that erupt suddenly from below or fall without warning from above, or both at the same time. Sometimes, events in one society arc for a moment around the planet to another, thereby dramatically changing both their trajectories.

The impacts of some global problems may not be felt for years or decades whereas decision-making time horizons are very short. Such enduring global problems may set severe limits on solving interrelated, medium-term global problems. Some solutions may turn out to generate further problems.

A regional set of examples

As an illustration, Australian concern over climate change is one justification for the establishment of components of the nuclear fuel cycle in Australia – uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication, high-level radioactive waste storage, and possibly nuclear power generation. Another element is Australian hopes for a privileged position in the Bush Administration’s planned Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Meanwhile, in Australia’s immediate neighbour Indonesia, with whom it has a fractious and volatile relationship, a parallel debate about concerns over the country’s power requirements, its declining position in hydrocarbon reserves and longstanding economic nationalist policy currents is promoting nuclear power generation. Irrespective of the economic and political realities in each case, security elites in both countries have registered developments in the other with degrees of alarm, especially since both countries have records of secret nuclear weapons development, which even then were in part responses to fears of each other. One country’s climate change adaptation may become the rational for security concern, and indeed nuclear proliferation.

Climate change, energy insecurity, and pandemics will certainly interact with existing conflict patterns. To take but one plausible example, again involving Australia and Indonesia, global warming will influence already massively degraded fishing stocks in the seas of eastern Indonesia which provide the basic protein requirements for most of the population of that large region. The implications for migration into Papua and further pressure on the fishing grounds off of northwest Australia are easy to imagine – as are the political consequences.

These local expressions of global problems foreshadow deep threats to the fabric of Australian and Indonesian life, and require, for their even their partial amelioration, cooperation between the two countries – and between the two societies. In fact, the shared character of these global threats, and the requirement for government and civil society in both countries to move towards cooperative solutions opens up the possibility of a shift in the often volatile security relations between the two countries, moving towards  a re-framing of Australia-Indonesia security relations  on the basis of shared solutions to shared global problems.

Knowledge and global problems

There is to date very little systematic inquiry into global problems – precisely what their characteristics are, or indeed, agreement about whether one’s person’s global problem is even a problem to another person. Indeed, the idea of what is a “problem” as such may well be an idea that sits more comfortably in some mindsets and cultural outlooks than others. The very idea of a “global problem” raises quite fundamental issues of perception and understanding within and between different cultural streams. This is by no means a trivial or purely academic matter.

The most sustained and systematic attempt to think through many such questions relating to the idea of problems on a world or global scale was carried out over several decades by the Union of International Associations in its Encyclopedia of World Problems and its associated databases and explanatory commentaries. The principal author of those commentaries, Anthony Judge, and his UIA collaborator Nadia McLaren, are providing a major contribution to this Global Problem Solving project by   abridging and re-writing those Explanatory Comments  in more accessible form.

Other aspects of the question of appropriate forms of knowledge for this new field of complex interdependencies are addressed by annotated bibliographies of authors dealing with  Knowledge formation and knowledge ecosystems  and  Complexity and risk , and Network analysis.

Global problems as social messes and wicked problems

Two key concepts for beginning to understand global problems both in general and specific cases are  wicked problems  and  social messes .

Wicked problems are ill-defined, ambiguous and associated with strong moral, political and professional issues. Since they are strongly stakeholder dependent, there is often little consensus about what the problem is, let alone how to resolve it. Furthermore, wicked problems won’t keep still: they are sets of complex, interacting issues evolving in a dynamic social context. Often, new forms of wicked problems emerge  as a result  of trying to understand and solve one of them.

Wicked problems have also been succinctly characterised as “complex problems that change when you apply a solution.”

Robert Horn has adapted earlier formulations of  criteria for wicked problems  to develop the features of a  social mess:

• No unique “correct” view of the problem
• Different views of the problem and contradictory solutions
• Most problems are connected to other problems
• Data are often uncertain or missing
• Multiple value conflicts
• Ideological and cultural constraints
• Political constraints
• Economic constraints
• Often a-logical or illogical or multi-valued thinking
• Numerous possible intervention points
• Consequences difficult to imagine
• Considerable uncertainty, ambiguity
• Great resistance to change
• Problem solver(s) out of contact with the problems and potential solutions.

These are very much the characteristics of the multiple, intersecting elements of complexes of problems such as climate change, weapons of mass destruction, global poverty and inequality, resource depletion and competition, threats to biodiversity from economic growth, and cultural clashes arising from contemporary and earlier forms of western-led globalisation. Each of these involves great resistances to change, high levels of uncertainty about causes and remedies, many different possible points of intervention but little certainty about consequences, evident interconnection with other problems coupled with lack of certainty about both the precise connections and whether all the connections are known – or even knowable, and often profoundly diverse and conflicting views of what “the problem” is and indeed whether there is in fact a problem at all.

Horn’s mess map of the  Climate Policy Labyrinth  that heads this article provides  a visual portrait for a set of experts’ perceptions of the constraints of one particular global problem cluster, and a paradigm of many others.

It metaphorically displays the constraints expressed by the interviewees as a huge labyrinth – and the uncertainties as a huge cloud — through which policies must proceed in order to result in the possible good outcomes identified (on which there was substantial agreement). It also depicts the enabling conditions interviewees identified as supportive of achieving the good outcomes. Overall it seeks to mirror the view of the policy process offered by those operating within it. The logic of this mural is metaphorical. It does not show literal paths that a specific policy or group of policies must take in order to navigate the labyrinth. Indeed, part of the power of the metaphor is to suggest that almost any policy proposal is bound to run into obstacles sooner or later – if we maintain the present level of thinking.

The beginning of understanding of the character of multiple, interdependent, causally complex social messes at the heart of what are now becoming recognised as global problems calls into question the character of the knowledge structures – and following on, institutional and policy frameworks – conventionally relied on for guidance in understanding radical threat. Not surprisingly, states are coming to realise that the knowledge frameworks they have relied upon to assess threat – the strategic intelligence cycle – are failing to provide adequate forewarning and understanding of precisely the kinds of threats to state interests contained in global problems. This has led to the beginning of a reformulation of both the characteristics and criteria of strategic intelligence and of the knowledge formation processes required to generate it. In the words of one such intelligence review, by the  Glasgow Group , writing on knowledge formation salient to global problems, there is a need to move

beyond analysis – particularly for systemic, complex strategic issues such as energy and environmental security, methodologies that span disciplinary, national, cultural, and cognitive boundaries and frameworks are essential. Unless the subject matter is appropriate to analytic techniques (which requires the ability to reduce and study a subject in discrete parts), strategic intelligence requires systems-based approaches which incorporate consideration of the impacts offeedback loops and other non-linear phenomena. The terms horizon scanning, environmental scanning, or alternative futures all represent a wide sweep of strategic intelligence efforts. Strategic intelligence is necessarily interdisciplinary, highly introspective about cognitive biases, preoccupied with unknowns, and open to multiple explanations and outcomes vs. a “bottom line” assessment or judgment. Good strategic intelligence intentionally highlights areas of uncertainty, but does so in ways that inform better decision-making, thereby avoiding false certainty and simplifications.

Richard Norgaard’s observations  of the process by which the scientists involved in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment overcame initial barriers deep in the structure of institutions of knowledge and policy tell a parallel story, worth quoting at length:

The problem is that earlier, narrow concepts about the nature of science still dominate and have structured our social organization such that our efforts to coordinate our understanding and adapt it to the problems at hand are always seriously constrained. We accepted the concept of private property and put the burden of proof on those who sought the public good. We allowed science to fragment into disciplines and gave the disciplines the primary responsibility in universities to judge the styles and quality of scientific work. We established agencies to promote particular ends using particular parts of science. In short, we built a world around the belief that complex systems could be divided into parts. These separate institutions and agencies channel the bulk of the resources not only of science and how it relates to economic development but also how it relates to biological conservation and speaking for the poor as well. Similarly, we have instituted international agreements and designed international institutions as if solutions could be global. We try to work through our imperfect organizational structures to solve the problems that result in part from fragmentation and false beliefs about the broad applicability of economic, social, and environmental mandates. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment offered an unusual opportunity for a significant number of scientists to work outside of the conventional fragmented structures of science and its implementation. The work was difficult and time consuming, but most of the participants pursued it until the end. The MA process went a long way toward developing the capability among the participants to comprehensively address the complexity of social and ecological system interactions at multiple scales. It also went a long way toward developing the trust necessary to facilitate treating apparently similar situations, such as balancing economic needs with pollution control or species conservation, differently in different situations.

The primary political and policy implication of the MA is that we need to substantial increase our understanding of how we collectively assess complex problems and then extend this understanding to all of the scientific community, policy makers and politicians, and the public at large. Then we need to reconstruct our institutions of governance to match our new richer understanding of the complexity of our interactions with our environment and the collective processes by which we can understand this complexity.

The  International Design Team Meeting  known as the Glasgow Group described what a new international strategic intelligence capability on energy and environmental issues could resemble:

The most important products of this system could be relevant working hypotheses and compelling logics (in the sense of consequences, possibly including some not yet considered) transcending the narrow advocacy of special interest groups through shared access to, and decentralized validation of, global expertise. The system itself, participants agreed, could fill a current void in communicating to both public and private sector decision-makers the security consequences of energy and environmental issues. By convening scientists and analysts alongside societal experts of various kinds, this system could carry out adaptive and collaborative foresight inquiries on energy and environmental security questions. Participants agreed that the user experience with this capability should be vivid, visual, and intuitive. They also agreed that it should harness the best available tools to encourage user-created content and should create an action-learning environment. In this context, the group hoped individuals could study the advantages and drawbacks of an interchangeability of producers and consumers of strategic intelligence at a future date. The Glasgow Group participants strongly urged that multiple stakeholders must participate globally in and share openly the strategic intelligence endeavor, rather than any government or single institution owning the capability. Vivid discussions must embody the capabilities of technologies designed to support a knowledge-creating community, to include the ability for scenario-building, visualization techniques, simulation models, on-demand “rehearsal” of the security impacts related to energy and environmental interactions. Face-to-face meetings will naturally constitute an additional community-building element of the proposed knowledge ecosystem. In addition, technologies will make the results of asynchronous interactions (both face-to-face and online) visible to others.

This study spoke in terms of a “knowledge ecosystem” rather than of institutions of research, an ecosystem relying on diversity in values, methods, and location to generate robust results:

this strategic intelligence knowledge ecosystem may offer various capabilities, including prediction markets, visualization tools, environmental scanning, and alternative scenarios construction. Its uniqueness will be in rapid aggregation and evaluation of knowledge and strategic insights, through distributed and still-evolving knowledge accreditation systems (such as those popularized on E-Bay, Amazon, or digg.com). In particular, this system will link communities of diversity and expertise at local, regional and global levels, and enable a credible and more objective intelligence source than currently available through either governmental or non-government institutions working in the area of energy and environmental security alone. Ideally, such a knowledge ecosystem will embrace group sense-making behaviors and transcend the limitations frequently observed with small units of analysts operating within one organization alone – an especially valuable property when considering the boundary-spanning nature of the energy and environmental security challenges. Project coordinator:  Richard Tanter 18 May 2008  

View this online at: https://nautilus.org/gps/intro/

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Copyright © 2024 Nautilus Institute. Website developed by Computer Courage .

What are the 10 biggest global challenges?

Image:  REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

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Whether it’s turning promises on climate change into action, rebuilding trust in the financial system, or connecting the world to the internet, the World Economic Forum has singled out 10 key global challenges that, if they are to be addressed, require cooperation from the public and private sectors.

Here is a guide to the 10 challenges, and why they matter to the world.

Food security and why it matters

By 2050, the world must feed 9 billion people . Yet the demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today.

The United Nations has set ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition , and promoting sustainable agriculture as the second of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030.

To achieve these objectives we will need to address a host of issues, from gender parity and ageing populations to skills development and global warming.

Agriculture sectors will have to become more productive by adopting efficient business models and forging public-private partnerships. And they need to become sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste.

The risks if we fail? Malnutrition, hunger and even conflict.

Why should growth be inclusive?

The push for economic growth in recent decades has led to substantial increases in wealth for large numbers of people across the globe. But despite huge gains in global economic output, there is evidence that our current social, political and economic systems are exacerbating inequalities, rather than reducing them.

A growing body of research also suggests that rising income inequality is the cause of economic and social ills, ranging from low consumption to social and political unrest, and is damaging to our future economic well-being.

In order to boost growth and counter the slowdown in emerging markets, we need to step up efforts around the world to accelerate economic activity and to ensure that its benefits reach everybody in society.

What will the world of work look like?

The scale of the employment challenge is vast. The International Labour Organization estimates that more than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008, leaving more than 200 million people unemployed globally.

Nearly 500 million new jobs will need to be created by 2020 to provide opportunities to those currently unemployed and to the young people who are projected to join the workforce over the next few years.

At the same time, many industries are facing difficulty hiring qualified staff. One 2015 survey found that, globally, 38% of all employers are reporting difficulty filling jobs, a two-percentage point rise from 2014.

Put simply, we need jobs for the hundreds of millions of unemployed people around the world, and we need the skilled employees that businesses are struggling to find.

Climate change: can we turn words into action?

The Earth’s average land temperature has warmed nearly 1°C in the past 50 years as a result of human activity, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by nearly 80% since 1970, and atmospheric concentrations of the major greenhouse gases are at their highest level in 800,000 years.

We're already seeing and feeling the impacts of climate change with weather events such as droughts and storms becoming more frequent and intense, and changing rainfall patterns. Insurers estimate that since the 1980s weather-related economic loss events have tripled.

Policy-makers have been advised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that there is a high risk of catastrophic climate change if warming is not limited to 2°C.

The historic agreement reached in Paris in December 2015 outlines a global commitment to keep warming to 2°C and to strive to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Under the agreement, every country will implement its own climate action plan that will be reviewed in 2018 and then every five years to ratchet up ambition levels. Wealthier countries also committed to deliver significant flows of money and technical support to help poor countries cope with curbing their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.

The world has agreed what is to be done. Now it is time for implementation.

What's the future of global finance?

The global financial crisis revealed significant weaknesses in the financial system and some of the vulnerabilities that can result from having such an interconnected global market.

Several years after the crisis, the world economy is still struggling with slow growth, unconventional monetary policy in major economies, and constrained government budgets. It is vital that we find ways of making the financial system more resilient and able to withstand shocks in the market.

The crisis also caused a significant drop in levels of public trust and confidence in financial institutions. To function efficiently, the system needs to re-establish that trust.

Providing access to credit and savings is a major challenge in the battle against global poverty – yet 2 billion people do not have access to high-quality, affordable financial services. Additionally, there are 200 million small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide that have no access to formal financial services.

The challenge is to create a resilient, accessible financial system that people trust.

What's the future of the internet?

The internet is changing the way we live, work, produce and consume. With such extensive reach, digital technologies cannot help but disrupt many of our existing models of business and government.

We are entering the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution , a technological transformation driven by a ubiquitous and mobile internet. The challenge is to manage this seismic change in a way that promotes the long-term health and stability of the internet.

Within the next decade, it is expected that more than a trillion sensors will be connected to the internet.

By 2025, 10% of people are expected to be wearing clothes connected to the internet and the first implantable mobile phone is expected to be sold.

If almost everything is connected, it will transform how we do business and help us manage resources more efficiently and sustainably.

But how will this affect our personal privacy, data security and our personal relationships? Today, 43% of the world’s population are connected to the internet, mostly in developed countries. How will we achieve the United Nations’ goal of connecting all the world’s inhabitants to affordable internet by 2020?

Will the future be gender equal?

Achieving gender equality isn't just a moral issue – it makes economic sense. Equality between men and women in all aspects of life, from access to health and education to political power and earning potential, is fundamental to whether and how societies thrive.

Although we are getting closer to gender parity, change isn't happening fast enough. For the past decade, the World Economic Forum been measuring the pace of change through the Global Gender Gap Report , and at current rates, it would take the world another 118 years – or until 2133 – to close the economic gap entirely.

There has been a significant increase in awareness of the importance of gender parity and much has been done by international organizations, civil society, governments and business.

However, often the work centres on single-issue awareness-raising campaigns. Existing work also frequently involves either cooperation between different public bodies or different private bodies.

More needs to be done to bridge the gap and facilitate cooperation between the public and private sectors.

What’s the deal with global trade and investment?

International trade and investment are vital drivers of economic growth. With the size and shape of the world economy changing dramatically in recent years, traditional patterns of trading and investing have had to rapidly evolve alongside it. The challenge is to ensure that the regulatory framework keeps up.

There have been so many changes in the way we do business. The growth of the digital economy, the rise of the service sector and the spread of international production networks have all been game-changers for international trade.

As well as this, foreign direct investment has become a key element of trade between different countries. Rather than simply trading with international partners, more and more companies are buying controlling stakes in foreign enterprises.

Despite fundamental changes in the way business is done across borders, international regulations and agreements have not evolved at the same speed. In addition, negotiations to reach a new global trade agreement have stalled.

While there have been a string of bilateral deals struck between countries and regions, there is a pressing need to reform the global trade framework. We also need to address the growing unease over globalization, which is evident from the number of questions being asked about the power of corporations and the adequacy of the regulations governing employment, environmental issues and taxation.

Long-term investing: how can we plug the gap?

Investing for the long term is vital for economic growth and social well-being. Whether it’s building new infrastructure or maintaining what already exists, funding is vital to maximize the economic benefits that flow from it.

But seven years after the global financial crisis, the world is still facing sluggish economic growth and constrained government budgets. As a result, there is an overall lack of long-term investment, which has serious implications for global growth.

The challenge is to find ways of funding the basic systems and services that countries need to function in a difficult financial climate.

How can we make healthcare fit for the future?

Over the past few decades, the world has seen major advancements in health and largely as a result, people are generally living longer, healthier lives. However, serious challenges to global health remain, ranging from dealing with pandemics to the rise of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to the prohibitive costs of care, particularly in developing countries.

The number of people on the planet is set to rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 with 2 billion aged over 60.

The global health system will need to adjust to this massive population growth, which will be concentrated in the poorest countries, and increasing numbers of elderly. This will mean shifting the current focus on treating sick people towards preventing illness and preserving the health of populations.

To cope with this huge demographic shift and build a global healthcare system that is fit for the future, the world needs to address these challenges now.

The Annual Meeting took place in Davos from 20-23 January, under the theme “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

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You are here, solving global challenges (sgc).

Session Snapshot:

Solving Global Challenges (SGC) focuses on innovative and cross-disciplinary approaches to solving the greatest challenges facing the global community in the 21st century. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students work towards developing solutions to issues with a global impact, focusing heavily on the 17 key challenges identified in the  United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) .  These wide-ranging topics include  global health, gender equality, poverty alleviation, art in protest, environmental sustainability, and green technologies. 

This session gives students the tools to translate between technical knowledge and in-practice implications.  SGC draws on a multitude of academic disciplines, from STEM to social sciences to the humanities and the arts. Students will practice skills in critical analysis, problem solving, and creativity as they explore and brainstorm innovative and sustainable solutions to a wide array of contemporary social, economic, and environmental problems.

Sample Lecture Offerings:

• New Technologies for a Greener Planet:  Dan Prober
• Granting Refuge: The Role of State Institutions in Refugee Asylum Outcomes:  Angela McClean
• The Climate Crisis in Perspective:  Doug Kysar

Sample Seminar Offerings:

• Visions of AI, the wonderful and terrible dream
• Will Machines Learn Better than Humans?: Decoding the Transformation of Education in the AI Era
• Trapped by Poverty: Graphing the Cycle of Global Inequality
• So You Want To Become a Dictator: A Practical Roadmap for Aspiring Authoritarians and Those Who Want to Stop Them
• Is it all just in your head? Global domination, racism and the story of how psychology became a tool for torture
• The Social Media Age and Activism Fatigue

Is SGC a Good Fit for Me?

If you are intrigued by any of the following questions, then this session is a great choice:

• How can we design sustainable cities?
• If feasible, should we edit human genomes? How could this be used and what impact would this have on society?
• What are the most effective poverty alleviation strategies and how do we implement them?
• Should artificial intelligence be used to solve human problems? What makes human intelligence different from artificial intelligence?
• How do we balance environmental protections with economic development?

Homepage » Core Communities » Council for Global Problem-Solving

Council for Global Problem-Solving

The Council for Global Problem-Solving (CGP) is the intellectual core of the Global Solutions Initiative. Its members are world-class think tanks and research institutions committed to providing policy advice to the G20 and associated international organizations.

The CGP is an accessible, permeable organization, open to all think tanks and research institutions that fulfill its terms of membership . The CGP works outside the official processes of the G20 and related international fora, but it supports these efforts by providing information, analysis of policy proposals and monitoring progress on policy implementation.

CGP members are engaged in a wide range of activities to offer policy advice to the G20. A selected overview can be found here .

     Member institutions

Asian Development Bank Institute ,  Japan

Bertelsmann Stiftung ,  Germany

Blavatnik School of Government ,  UK

The Brookings Institution ,  USA

 Bruegel ,  EU

Council on Energy, Environment and Water, India

CEFIR ,  Russia

Centre for International Governance Innovation,  Canada  

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),  Indonesia

CIPPEC,  Argentina   

Consejo Argentino Para Las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI) ,  Argentina

Elcano Royal Institute,  Spain

Ethos,  Mexico

Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil 

G20 Research Group,  Canada

Gateway House,  India

Hertie School,  Germany

ICRIER, India

German Institute of Development and Sustainability, Germany  

Institute for New Economic Thinking,  England 

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria

Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance

International Panel on Social Progress

Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), Italy  

Kiel Institute for the World Economy,  Germany

King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center,  Saudi Arabia 

Korea Development Institute (KDI),  South Korea

Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), South Korea

LPEM FEB UI Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

New Economic School (NES), Russia

Observer Research Foundation,  India  

OECD,  Policy Studies Branch

Oxford Martin School,  UK

Pew Research Center,  USA 

Renmin University,  China

UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, SDSN, 

SAIIA, South Africa

Stiftung Mercator,  Germany

THE NEW INSTITUTE, Germany

University College London (UCL), UK

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Incorporate STEM journalism in your classroom

• Exercise type: Discussion
• Topic: Health & Medicine
• Category: Coronavirus

Global problem solving gets personal

• Download Student Worksheet

Directions: Ask students to read and answer questions about the online Science News article “ Global inequity in COVID-19 vaccination is more than a moral problem .” A version of the story, “Vaccine inequity will prolong pandemic,” appears in the March 27, 2021 issue of Science News .

Students should answer the first set of questions alone and then work with a partner to answer the second and third sets of questions.

Want to make it a virtual lesson? Post the online Science News article to your virtual classroom. Discuss the article and questions with your class on your virtual platform.

Vaccinating our global community

1. Are COVID-19 vaccines being distributed fairly around the world? Explain.

The distribution isn’t equitable. Rich countries have secured many more doses of the vaccine than they need in advance, leaving fewer doses available for less-wealthy nations.

2. Which countries have had better access to COVID-19 vaccines? How does vaccine access affect countries’ vaccination rates? What impact do vaccination rates have on countries?

Wealthy countries have had better access to vaccine doses and therefore have higher rates of vaccination than less-wealthy nations with poor access to vaccine doses. A country’s vaccination rate can affect not only the health and social behaviors of its people, but also the health of its economy.

3. Choose one of the following quotes from the Science News article and discuss its meaning.

“The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure, and the price of this failure will be paid with the lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

“No one is safe until all of us are safe, since an outbreak anywhere can become an outbreak everywhere.”

“If we want to stop the spread we have to stop it everywhere, starting with the most vulnerable. Otherwise we’re going to see continued outbreaks and suffering.”

Student answers will vary but should highlight the need for a global solution to vaccinations.

4. Brainstorm communities of varying scales. Create a diagram that helps define the relative size and connectedness of the communities. One approach could be to use circles of relative sizes to define the different communities. Be sure to show how the communities are connected in your diagram.

Student answers will vary but should include individuals, families, town, county, state, national, continental, global.

Global and local impacts

1. What impact does vaccine inequity have on the global community in the short-term? What about the long-term?

In the short-term, some countries will have high vaccination rates and low numbers of COVID-19 cases. Countries that have poor access to vaccine doses will continue to have low vaccination rates and high numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths. People in countries with high vaccination rates may have fewer social restrictions and travel would probably increase.

In the long-term, an uneven vaccination rate could cause coronavirus variants to arise that spread more easily and are potentially more infectious. As a result, COVID-19 cases could spike even in countries with high vaccination rates as the vaccines may be less effective against variants. Travel would decrease and the global economy would also probably be further interrupted.

2. Discuss what you know about the vaccination rate in your own community with your partner. How could the impact of COVID-19 vaccines in your local community change over time as a result of global vaccine inequity? Think through short-term and long-term effects.

Student answers will vary. Students may mention that as vaccination rates increase in their community, the number of cases of and deaths from COVID-19 will decline. However, an uneven global vaccination rate could spur more variants of the coronavirus. Current vaccines may be less effective against those variants, and if the variants spread to the local community, COVID-19 cases could spike again. That could lead to stricter social restrictions that could impact businesses, people’s jobs and the economy.

3. Explain one existing approach to help create a more equitable solution to global vaccination distribution. Propose an idea that would help support the current approach, or suggest a unique alternative solution.

COVAX is using funds from governments and charitable organizations to buy vaccine doses from pharmaceutical companies and distribute the doses to low-income countries for free. Other student-suggested solutions will vary.

Global STEM collaboration

1. Can you think of an example from your own life where disjointed approaches to a solving a problem ended up causing a larger issue? What would have been a more successful approach?

Student answers will vary but should highlight a personal example of when collaboration led to a more successful outcome.

2. What are other examples of global collaborations in STEM that exist for the good of the humankind? Explain.

Student answers will vary. Students might mention global monitoring networks like the Global Ocean Observing System to observe climate data, the United Nations Paris climate accord or the World Health Organization.

3. Is there a STEM issue facing the world that you think needs a global solution? Explain.

Student answers will vary but could include more global collaboration to stop climate change or preparation for a future pandemic, for example.

Problem Solving in Education: A Global Imperative

Pedagogical Shifts

Essential lessons, leadership challenges and opportunities.

Jamaludin, A., & Hung, D. W. L. (2016). Digital "learning trails": Scaling technology-facilitated curricular innovation in schools with a rhizomatic lens. Journal of Educational Change , 17 (3), 355–377.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow . New York: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux.

National Academy of Sciences. (2010). Rising above the gathering storm, revisited: Rapidly approaching category 5. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

McNeill, K. L., González-Howard, M., Katsh-Singer, R., & Loper, S. (2017). Moving beyond pseudoargumentation: Teachers' enactments of an educative science curriculum focused on argumentation. Science Education , 101 (3), 426–457.

Ng, P. T. (2017). Learning from Singapore: The power of paradoxes . New York: Routledge.

OECD. (2012). PISA 2012 results: Creative problem solving. Paris: OECD.

Patchen, A. K., Zhang, L., & Barnett, M. (2017). Growing plants and scientists: Fostering positive attitudes toward science among all participants in an afterschool hydroponics program. Journal of Science and Educational Technology , 26 (3), 279–294.

Prensky, M. R. (2012). From digital natives to digital wisdom: Hopeful essays for 21st century learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Shirley, D. (2016). The new imperatives of educational change: Achievement with integrity . New York: Routledge.

• 1 Read more about the Jurong Secondary School project .

He has conducted in-depth studies about school innovations in England, Germany, Canada, and South Korea. Shirley has been a visiting professor at Harvard University in the United States, Venice International University in Italy, the National Institute of Education in Singapore, the University of Barcelona in Spain, and the University of Stavanger in Norway. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Shirley’s previous book is The New Imperatives of Educational Change: Achievement with Integrity .

Pak Tee Ng is Associate Dean, Leadership Learning at the National Institute of Education of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of Learning from Singapore: The Power of Paradoxes (Routledge, 2017).

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

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What is climate change mitigation and why is it urgent?

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• Climate change mitigation involves actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
• Mitigation efforts include transitioning to renewable energy sources, enhancing energy efficiency, adopting regenerative agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and critical ecosystems.
• Effective mitigation requires a whole-of-society approach and structural transformations to reduce emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
• International cooperation, for example through the Paris Agreement, is crucial in guiding and achieving global and national mitigation goals.
• Mitigation efforts face challenges such as the world's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels, the increased demand for new mineral resources and the difficulties in revamping our food systems.
• These challenges also offer opportunities to improve resilience and contribute to sustainable development.

What is climate change mitigation?

Climate change mitigation refers to any action taken by governments, businesses or people to reduce or prevent greenhouse gases, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove them from the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun in our planet’s atmosphere, keeping it warm. 

Since the industrial era began, human activities have led to the release of dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, causing global warming and climate change. However, despite unequivocal research about the impact of our activities on the planet’s climate and growing awareness of the severe danger climate change poses to our societies, greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. If we can slow down the rise in greenhouse gases, we can slow down the pace of climate change and avoid its worst consequences.

Reducing greenhouse gases can be achieved by:

• Shifting away from fossil fuels : Fossil fuels are the biggest source of greenhouse gases, so transitioning to modern renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power, and advancing sustainable modes of transportation, is crucial.
• Improving energy efficiency : Using less energy overall – in buildings, industries, public and private spaces, energy generation and transmission, and transportation – helps reduce emissions. This can be achieved by using thermal comfort standards, better insulation and energy efficient appliances, and by improving building design, energy transmission systems and vehicles.
• Changing agricultural practices : Certain farming methods release high amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, which are potent greenhouse gases. Regenerative agricultural practices – including enhancing soil health, reducing livestock-related emissions, direct seeding techniques and using cover crops – support mitigation, improve resilience and decrease the cost burden on farmers.
• The sustainable management and conservation of forests : Forests act as carbon sinks , absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation are key for climate mitigation and generate multiple additional benefits such as biodiversity conservation and improved water cycles.
• Restoring and conserving critical ecosystems : In addition to forests, ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands, and grasslands, as well as coastal biomes such as mangrove forests, also contribute significantly to carbon sequestration, while supporting biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience.
• Creating a supportive environment : Investments, policies and regulations that encourage emission reductions, such as incentives, carbon pricing and limits on emissions from key sectors are crucial to driving climate change mitigation.

Photo: Stephane Bellerose/UNDP Mauritius

Photo: La Incre and Lizeth Jurado/PROAmazonia

What is the 1.5°C goal and why do we need to stick to it?

In 2015, 196 Parties to the UN Climate Convention in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement , a landmark international treaty, aimed at curbing global warming and addressing the effects of climate change. Its core ambition is to cap the rise in global average temperatures to well below 2°C above levels observed prior to the industrial era, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

The 1.5°C goal is extremely important, especially for vulnerable communities already experiencing severe climate change impacts. Limiting warming below 1.5°C will translate into less extreme weather events and sea level rise, less stress on food production and water access, less biodiversity and ecosystem loss, and a lower chance of irreversible climate consequences.

To limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C, it is imperative for the world to undertake significant mitigation action. This requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.

What are the policy instruments that countries can use to drive mitigation?

Everyone has a role to play in climate change mitigation, from individuals adopting sustainable habits and advocating for change to governments implementing regulations, providing incentives and facilitating investments. The private sector, particularly those businesses and companies responsible for causing high emissions, should take a leading role in innovating, funding and driving climate change mitigation solutions. 

International collaboration and technology transfer is also crucial given the global nature and size of the challenge. As the main platform for international cooperation on climate action, the Paris Agreement has set forth a series of responsibilities and policy tools for its signatories. One of the primary instruments for achieving the goals of the treaty is Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) . These are the national climate pledges that each Party is required to develop and update every five years. NDCs articulate how each country will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhance climate resilience.   While NDCs include short- to medium-term targets, long-term low emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) are policy tools under the Paris Agreement through which countries must show how they plan to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century. These strategies define a long-term vision that gives coherence and direction to shorter-term national climate targets.

Photo: Mucyo Serge/UNDP Rwanda

Photo: William Seal/UNDP Sudan

At the same time, the call for climate change mitigation has evolved into a call for reparative action, where high-income countries are urged to rectify past and ongoing contributions to the climate crisis. This approach reflects the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which advocates for climate justice, recognizing the unequal historical responsibility for the climate crisis, emphasizing that wealthier countries, having profited from high-emission activities, bear a greater obligation to lead in mitigating these impacts. This includes not only reducing their own emissions, but also supporting vulnerable countries in their transition to low-emission development pathways.

Another critical aspect is ensuring a just transition for workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry and its many connected industries. This process must prioritize social equity and create alternative employment opportunities as part of the shift towards renewable energy and more sustainable practices.

For emerging economies, innovation and advancements in technology have now demonstrated that robust economic growth can be achieved with clean, sustainable energy sources. By integrating renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal power into their growth strategies, these economies can reduce their emissions, enhance energy security and create new economic opportunities and jobs. This shift not only contributes to global mitigation efforts but also sets a precedent for sustainable development.

What are some of the challenges slowing down climate change mitigation efforts?

Mitigating climate change is fraught with complexities, including the global economy's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels and the accompanying challenge of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. This reliance – and the vested interests that have a stake in maintaining it – presents a significant barrier to transitioning to sustainable energy sources.

The shift towards decarbonization and renewable energy is driving increased demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals. Since new mining projects can take up to 15 years to yield output, mineral supply chains could become a bottleneck for decarbonization efforts. In addition, these minerals are predominantly found in a few, mostly low-income countries, which could heighten supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions.

Furthermore, due to the significant demand for these minerals and the urgency of the energy transition, the scaled-up investment in the sector has the potential to exacerbate environmental degradation, economic and governance risks, and social inequalities, affecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and workers. Addressing these concerns necessitates implementing social and environmental safeguards, embracing circular economy principles, and establishing and enforcing responsible policies and regulations .

Agriculture is currently the largest driver of deforestation worldwide. A transformation in our food systems to reverse the impact that agriculture has on forests and biodiversity is undoubtedly a complex challenge. But it is also an important opportunity. The latest IPCC report highlights that adaptation and mitigation options related to land, water and food offer the greatest potential in responding to the climate crisis. Shifting to regenerative agricultural practices will not only ensure a healthy, fair and stable food supply for the world’s population, but also help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Photo: UNDP India

Photo: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP Georgia

What are some examples of climate change mitigation?

In Mauritius , UNDP, with funding from the Green Climate Fund, has supported the government to install battery energy storage capacity that has enabled 50 MW of intermittent renewable energy to be connected to the grid, helping to avoid 81,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. 

In Indonesia , UNDP has been working with the government for over a decade to support sustainable palm oil production. In 2019, the country adopted a National Action Plan on Sustainable Palm Oil, which was collaboratively developed by government, industry and civil society representatives. The plan increased the adoption of practices to minimize the adverse social and environmental effects of palm oil production and to protect forests. Since 2015, 37 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided and 824,000 hectares of land with high conservation value have been protected.

In Moldova and Paraguay , UNDP has helped set up Green City Labs that are helping build more sustainable cities. This is achieved by implementing urban land use and mobility planning, prioritizing energy efficiency in residential buildings, introducing low-carbon public transport, implementing resource-efficient waste management, and switching to renewable energy sources. 

UNDP has supported the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia to implement results-based payments through the REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) framework. These include payments for environmental services and community forest management programmes that channel international climate finance resources to local actors on the ground, specifically forest communities and Indigenous Peoples. 

UNDP is also supporting small island developing states like the Comoros to invest in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. Through the Africa Minigrids Program , solar minigrids will be installed in two priority communities, Grand Comore and Moheli, providing energy access through distributed renewable energy solutions to those hardest to reach.

And in South Africa , a UNDP initative to boost energy efficiency awareness among the general population and improve labelling standards has taken over commercial shopping malls.

What is UNDP’s role in supporting climate change mitigation?

UNDP aims to assist countries with their climate change mitigation efforts, guiding them towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. This support is in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to affordable and clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and climate action (SDG13). Specifically, UNDP’s offer of support includes developing and improving legislation and policy, standards and regulations, capacity building, knowledge dissemination, and financial mobilization for countries to pilot and scale-up mitigation solutions such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency initiatives and sustainable land-use practices. 

With financial support from the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund, UNDP has an active portfolio of 94 climate change mitigation projects in 69 countries. These initiatives are not only aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also at contributing to sustainable and resilient development pathways.

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Our site is BRAND NEW . Using our creative problem-solving skills we have repositioned ourselves. FPSPI is now using the Future Problem Solving name. A new cleaner look. More content. Easier navigation. More upgrades to come!

Global Issues

• Community Projects
• Creative Writing
• Storytelling
• Problem-Solving Method
• Real World Issues
• Future Scenarios
• Authentic Assessments
• 5Cs of Learning
• Youth Protection
• DEIB Commitment
• International Conference
• Find FPS Near Me
• Partner With Us

At a Glance

Program overview.

Our Global Issues program uses imagined “what if” future scenarios to describe real world problem situations needing to be solved.

3 Competition Divisions

Junior – Grades 4 to 6 Middle – Grades 7 to 9 Senior – Grades 10 to 12

Team and Individual Options

Students may work on challenges in teams of up to four students or on an individual basis.

5 Annual Topics

Each school year, students get 3-5 opportunities, based on their progress in local and regional competitions, to solve important global challenges.

Student Work Requirements

After researching and analyzing a topic, students get two hours during competitions to complete our 6-step problem-solving process for a given future situation.

Non-Competitive Activities

Teachers often integrate Global Issues topics, future scenes, and problem-solving activities into their classroom curriculum.

How It Works

Students become mini-experts and predict possibilities for the future.

Students learn to thoroughly research and analyze real world issues and use our proven 6-step problem-solving method to develop relevant action plans. They apply this knowledge plus divergent and convergent thinking skills to imagined future scenarios in our competitions.

Competition Season

Each school year, two practice problems and one qualifying problem are available for all to complete. Those who qualify for their regional affiliate finals complete a fourth problem challenge for a chance to attend our annual International Conference in June. We announce all four problem topics for the next season on March 1.

Authentic Assessment

Registered students receive feedback from trained evaluators on their submissions for each topic. Our rubric-based evaluations provide learner-focused feedback on each problem-solving step to strengthen student skills and recognize success.

World Finals Qualification

We invite regional affiliate champions to attend our International Conference and compete alongside their peers. We announce a fifth problem topic on March 1 each year for use at our world finals event in June.

Recent Topics

Our real world topics are future-focused.

Air Quality

How will the quality of air, a globally shared resource essential for human health and prosperity, impact us in the future?

Autonomous Transportation

How can we balance utilizing the advancing technology for autonomous vehicles with safety and security concerns in the future?

How can we balance between sustainably preserving and utilizing Antarctica to benefit humanity in the future?

How will emerging technologies and changing economies impact how the world uses currency in the future?

6-Step Problem-Solving Method

Our evaluations provide feedback for each problem solving step.

Students use the 5Cs of 21st Century Learning throughout the Future Problem Solving process. With each step, they predict possibilities for a topic-related situation 20 to 40 years in the future. Certified evaluators analyze the students’ work from their step one challenges to their step six action plan, providing feedback through authentic assessment .

Identify Challenges

The first step builds a foundational understanding of the problem. Students start by generating important challenges or issues related to the situation across multiple categories . Teams present more ideas than individuals.

Select an Underlying Problem

After analyzing all the possible challenges, students narrow their focus to a single issue area of major importance relative to other situation challenges. They complete the step by articulating the underlying problem they plan to solve.

Produce Solution Ideas

With their underlying problem selected, students shift to generating solutions to address this one problem. Quality, quantity, and the use of a variety of categories are encouraged in this step. Teams present more ideas than individuals.

Select Criteria

At the halfway point, students move to planning for action. In step four, they develop five criteria relevant to their underlying problem, each focused on a single standard, to measure the merit of their solution ideas.

Apply Criteria to Top Solutions

Students complete an evaluation grid by comparing their most promising solutions to their selected criteria. By ranking the solutions against each criterion separately, they determine their best solution. Teams rank more solutions in the grid than individuals.

Develop an Action Plan

The problem-solving process does not end with identifying a solution. Instead, in the final step, students develop a plan of action to both explain their process and implement the best solution to address their underlying problem in the future. The world finals, and most regional affiliate finals, also require a creative presentation or skit of the action plan.

Student Showcase

Lifetime skills on display.

Neurotechnology

2021 Individual Champion Junior Division Anya (North Carolina)

Antibiotic Resistance

2022 Team Champion Middle Division Caroline, Sijia, Siqi, and Xin (Singapore)

Terraforming

2020 Individual Champion Senior Division Kate (California)

Qualify for International Conference

Questions find the answers here..

Find everything else you need to know about Global Issues in our Resources Library . In addition, check out the answers to other common Future Problem Solving questions.

Yes, Global Issues works well beyond the classroom in all the spaces and places young people learn. Some groups participate in community-based Future Problem Solving clubs not affiliated with any school. Other students choose to take part asynchronously, fully online. Great out-of-school time options for doing Future Problem Solving include after-school enrichment settings, youth development programs, and independent learning channels.

Students participate through schools, clubs, or independently through a Future Problem Solving regional affiliate . Every Global Issues team or individual works alongside an adult who serves as their coach or adult liaison. While coaches are often educators who may utilize their classroom time for Future Problem Solving, anyone may serve as a coach. Parents, administrators, retired teachers, alumni, and other professionals interested in helping students become better prepared for the future are all welcome. Often, experienced Future Problem Solving students (with an adult sponsor) also serve as coaches for younger students.

All coaches gain access to program materials designed to help them guide their students through the problem-solving process as well as prepare for each topic challenge. Registration fees cover everything students need for the general competitions including future scenes, some suggested readings on the topics, competition booklets, and evaluation and feedback on booklet submissions.

Topic learning units are also available for purchase. Each unit contains background research, more suggested readings, discussion questions, learning prompts, assessment resources, and activity units that pair topic information with 6-step problem-solving process training. Additional fees may be required for regional affiliate and world finals. For more information on local fees and schedules, contact your Future Problem Solving regional affiliate .

Future Problem Solving Students – A Five Year Study

A comparison of reading and mathematics performance between students participating in a future problem solving program and nonparticipants.

Data from the The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) was collected by Grandview Middle School and provided to Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. for statistical analysis.

Findings reported by Scholastic Testing Service, Inc. Performance data on the MCA was collected from 2010-2014 for students in grade 6 at Grandview Middle School in Mound, MN (Westonka Public School District). Students were identified as either FPS: students participating in a Future Problem Solving program, or Non-FPS: students not participating in the program. Summary statistics using Reading and Mathematics Scaled Scores were developed for each group of students by year and across years. To determine if the mean scores across the years were significantly different, t-tests were used. A Cohen’s d test was then performed to measure the effect of the size of the found differences.

In all cases, students participating in the Future Problem Solving Program performed significantly higher on the MCA in both areas of Mathematics and Reading.

Effects of Group Training in Problem-Solving Style on Future Problem-Solving Performance

The journal of creative behavior (jcb) of the creative education foundation.

Seventy-five participants from one suburban high school formed 21 teams with 3–4 members each for Future Problem Solving (FPS). Students were selected to participate in either the regular FPS or an enhanced FPS, where multiple group training activities grounded in problem-solving style were incorporated into a 9-week treatment period.

An ANCOVA procedure was used to examine the difference in team responses to a creative problem-solving scenario for members of each group, after accounting for initial differences in creative problem-solving performance, years of experience in FPS, and creative thinking related to fluency, flexibility, and originality. The ANCOVA resulted in a significant difference in problem-solving performance in favor of students in the treatment group (F(1, 57) = 8.21, p = .006, partial eta squared = .126, medium), while there were no significant differences in years of experience or creativity scores. This result led researchers to conclude that students in both groups had equivalent creative ability and that participation in the group activities emphasizing problem-solving style significantly contributed to creative performance.

In the comparison group, a total of 47% had scores that qualified for entry to the state competition. In contrast, 89% of the students in the treatment group had scores that qualified them for the state bowl. None of the teams from the comparison group qualified for the international competition, while two teams from the treatment group were selected, with one earning sixth place.

The results of this study suggest that problem-solving performance by team members can be improved through direct instruction in problem-solving style, particularly when there is a focus on group dynamics.

The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 0, Iss. 0, pp. 1–12 © 2017 by the Creative Education Foundation, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/jocb.176

Future Problem Solving Program International—Second Generation Study

“how important was future problem solving in the development of your following skill sets”.

In 2011, a team of researchers from the University of Virginia submitted a report titled “Future Problem Solving Program International—Second Generation Study.” (Callahan, Alimin, & Uguz, 2012). The study, based on a survey, collected data from over 150 Future Problem Solving alumni to understand the impact of their participation in Future Problem Solving as students or volunteers.

Percentage of Alumni Rating Important and Extremely Important in Developing Skill Sets

• 96% Look at the “Big Picture”
• 93% Critical Thinking
• 93% Teamwork and Collaboration
• 93% Identify and Solve Problems
• 93% Time Management
• 90% Researching
• 90% Evaluation and Decision Making
• 86% Creativity and Innovation
• 86% Written Communication

The report captured alumni’s positive experiences as students in Future Problem Solving and documented that the alumni continued to utilize the FPS-structured approach to solving problems in their adult lives.

Executive Director

A seasoned educator, April Michele has served as the Executive Director since 2018 and been with Future Problem Solving more than a decade. Her background in advanced curriculum strategies and highly engaging learning techniques translates well in the development of materials, publications, training, and marketing for the organization and its global network. April’s expertise includes pedagogy and strategies for critical and creative thinking and providing quality educational services for students and adults worldwide.

Prior to joining Future Problem Solving, April taught elementary and middle grades, spending most of her classroom career in gifted education. She earned the National Board certification (NBPTS) as a Middle Childhood/Generalist and later served as a National Board assessor for the certification of others. In addition, April facilitated the Theory and Development of Creativity course for the state of Florida’s certification of teachers. She has also collaborated on a variety of special projects through the Department of Education. Beyond her U.S. education credentials, she has been trained for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) in Humanities.

A graduate of the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s in Elementary Education and the University of South Florida with a master’s in Gifted Education, April’s passion is providing a challenging curriculum for 21st century students so they are equipped with the problem-solving and ethical leadership skills they need to thrive in the future. As a board member in her local Rotary Club, she facilitates problem solving in leadership at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute and earned her certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Edyth Bush Institute at Rollins College.

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Problem-Solving Strategies and Obstacles

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Sean is a fact-checker and researcher with experience in sociology, field research, and data analytics.

JGI / Jamie Grill / Getty Images

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From deciding what to eat for dinner to considering whether it's the right time to buy a house, problem-solving is a large part of our daily lives. Learn some of the problem-solving strategies that exist and how to use them in real life, along with ways to overcome obstacles that are making it harder to resolve the issues you face.

What Is Problem-Solving?

In cognitive psychology , the term 'problem-solving' refers to the mental process that people go through to discover, analyze, and solve problems.

A problem exists when there is a goal that we want to achieve but the process by which we will achieve it is not obvious to us. Put another way, there is something that we want to occur in our life, yet we are not immediately certain how to make it happen.

Maybe you want a better relationship with your spouse or another family member but you're not sure how to improve it. Or you want to start a business but are unsure what steps to take. Problem-solving helps you figure out how to achieve these desires.

The problem-solving process involves:

• Discovery of the problem
• Deciding to tackle the issue
• Seeking to understand the problem more fully
• Researching available options or solutions
• Taking action to resolve the issue

Before problem-solving can occur, it is important to first understand the exact nature of the problem itself. If your understanding of the issue is faulty, your attempts to resolve it will also be incorrect or flawed.

Problem-Solving Mental Processes

Several mental processes are at work during problem-solving. Among them are:

• Perceptually recognizing the problem
• Representing the problem in memory
• Considering relevant information that applies to the problem
• Identifying different aspects of the problem
• Labeling and describing the problem

Problem-Solving Strategies

There are many ways to go about solving a problem. Some of these strategies might be used on their own, or you may decide to employ multiple approaches when working to figure out and fix a problem.

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that, by following certain "rules" produces a solution. Algorithms are commonly used in mathematics to solve division or multiplication problems. But they can be used in other fields as well.

In psychology, algorithms can be used to help identify individuals with a greater risk of mental health issues. For instance, research suggests that certain algorithms might help us recognize children with an elevated risk of suicide or self-harm.

One benefit of algorithms is that they guarantee an accurate answer. However, they aren't always the best approach to problem-solving, in part because detecting patterns can be incredibly time-consuming.

There are also concerns when machine learning is involved—also known as artificial intelligence (AI)—such as whether they can accurately predict human behaviors.

Heuristics are shortcut strategies that people can use to solve a problem at hand. These "rule of thumb" approaches allow you to simplify complex problems, reducing the total number of possible solutions to a more manageable set.

If you find yourself sitting in a traffic jam, for example, you may quickly consider other routes, taking one to get moving once again. When shopping for a new car, you might think back to a prior experience when negotiating got you a lower price, then employ the same tactics.

While heuristics may be helpful when facing smaller issues, major decisions shouldn't necessarily be made using a shortcut approach. Heuristics also don't guarantee an effective solution, such as when trying to drive around a traffic jam only to find yourself on an equally crowded route.

Trial and Error

A trial-and-error approach to problem-solving involves trying a number of potential solutions to a particular issue, then ruling out those that do not work. If you're not sure whether to buy a shirt in blue or green, for instance, you may try on each before deciding which one to purchase.

This can be a good strategy to use if you have a limited number of solutions available. But if there are many different choices available, narrowing down the possible options using another problem-solving technique can be helpful before attempting trial and error.

In some cases, the solution to a problem can appear as a sudden insight. You are facing an issue in a relationship or your career when, out of nowhere, the solution appears in your mind and you know exactly what to do.

Insight can occur when the problem in front of you is similar to an issue that you've dealt with in the past. Although, you may not recognize what is occurring since the underlying mental processes that lead to insight often happen outside of conscious awareness .

Research indicates that insight is most likely to occur during times when you are alone—such as when going on a walk by yourself, when you're in the shower, or when lying in bed after waking up.

How to Apply Problem-Solving Strategies in Real Life

If you're facing a problem, you can implement one or more of these strategies to find a potential solution. Here's how to use them in real life:

• Create a flow chart . If you have time, you can take advantage of the algorithm approach to problem-solving by sitting down and making a flow chart of each potential solution, its consequences, and what happens next.
• Recall your past experiences . When a problem needs to be solved fairly quickly, heuristics may be a better approach. Think back to when you faced a similar issue, then use your knowledge and experience to choose the best option possible.
• Start trying potential solutions . If your options are limited, start trying them one by one to see which solution is best for achieving your desired goal. If a particular solution doesn't work, move on to the next.
• Take some time alone . Since insight is often achieved when you're alone, carve out time to be by yourself for a while. The answer to your problem may come to you, seemingly out of the blue, if you spend some time away from others.

Obstacles to Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is not a flawless process as there are a number of obstacles that can interfere with our ability to solve a problem quickly and efficiently. These obstacles include:

• Assumptions: When dealing with a problem, people can make assumptions about the constraints and obstacles that prevent certain solutions. Thus, they may not even try some potential options.
• Functional fixedness : This term refers to the tendency to view problems only in their customary manner. Functional fixedness prevents people from fully seeing all of the different options that might be available to find a solution.
• Irrelevant or misleading information: When trying to solve a problem, it's important to distinguish between information that is relevant to the issue and irrelevant data that can lead to faulty solutions. The more complex the problem, the easier it is to focus on misleading or irrelevant information.
• Mental set: A mental set is a tendency to only use solutions that have worked in the past rather than looking for alternative ideas. A mental set can work as a heuristic, making it a useful problem-solving tool. However, mental sets can also lead to inflexibility, making it more difficult to find effective solutions.

How to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills

In the end, if your goal is to become a better problem-solver, it's helpful to remember that this is a process. Thus, if you want to improve your problem-solving skills, following these steps can help lead you to your solution:

• Recognize that a problem exists . If you are facing a problem, there are generally signs. For instance, if you have a mental illness , you may experience excessive fear or sadness, mood changes, and changes in sleeping or eating habits. Recognizing these signs can help you realize that an issue exists.
• Decide to solve the problem . Make a conscious decision to solve the issue at hand. Commit to yourself that you will go through the steps necessary to find a solution.
• Seek to fully understand the issue . Analyze the problem you face, looking at it from all sides. If your problem is relationship-related, for instance, ask yourself how the other person may be interpreting the issue. You might also consider how your actions might be contributing to the situation.
• Research potential options . Using the problem-solving strategies mentioned, research potential solutions. Make a list of options, then consider each one individually. What are some pros and cons of taking the available routes? What would you need to do to make them happen?
• Take action . Select the best solution possible and take action. Action is one of the steps required for change . So, go through the motions needed to resolve the issue.
• Try another option, if needed . If the solution you chose didn't work, don't give up. Either go through the problem-solving process again or simply try another option.

You can find a way to solve your problems as long as you keep working toward this goal—even if the best solution is simply to let go because no other good solution exists.

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Dunbar K. Problem solving . A Companion to Cognitive Science . 2017. doi:10.1002/9781405164535.ch20

Stewart SL, Celebre A, Hirdes JP, Poss JW. Risk of suicide and self-harm in kids: The development of an algorithm to identify high-risk individuals within the children's mental health system . Child Psychiat Human Develop . 2020;51:913-924. doi:10.1007/s10578-020-00968-9

Rosenbusch H, Soldner F, Evans AM, Zeelenberg M. Supervised machine learning methods in psychology: A practical introduction with annotated R code . Soc Personal Psychol Compass . 2021;15(2):e12579. doi:10.1111/spc3.12579

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Csikszentmihalyi M, Sawyer K. Creative insight: The social dimension of a solitary moment . In: The Systems Model of Creativity . 2015:73-98. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9085-7_7

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

What is Problem Solving? (Steps, Techniques, Examples)

By Status.net Editorial Team on May 7, 2023 — 5 minutes to read

What Is Problem Solving?

Definition and importance.

Problem solving is the process of finding solutions to obstacles or challenges you encounter in your life or work. It is a crucial skill that allows you to tackle complex situations, adapt to changes, and overcome difficulties with ease. Mastering this ability will contribute to both your personal and professional growth, leading to more successful outcomes and better decision-making.

Problem-Solving Steps

The problem-solving process typically includes the following steps:

• Identify the issue : Recognize the problem that needs to be solved.
• Analyze the situation : Examine the issue in depth, gather all relevant information, and consider any limitations or constraints that may be present.
• Generate potential solutions : Brainstorm a list of possible solutions to the issue, without immediately judging or evaluating them.
• Evaluate options : Weigh the pros and cons of each potential solution, considering factors such as feasibility, effectiveness, and potential risks.
• Select the best solution : Choose the option that best addresses the problem and aligns with your objectives.
• Implement the solution : Put the selected solution into action and monitor the results to ensure it resolves the issue.
• Review and learn : Reflect on the problem-solving process, identify any improvements or adjustments that can be made, and apply these learnings to future situations.

Defining the Problem

To start tackling a problem, first, identify and understand it. Analyzing the issue thoroughly helps to clarify its scope and nature. Ask questions to gather information and consider the problem from various angles. Some strategies to define the problem include:

• Brainstorming with others
• Asking the 5 Ws and 1 H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How)
• Analyzing cause and effect
• Creating a problem statement

Generating Solutions

Once the problem is clearly understood, brainstorm possible solutions. Think creatively and keep an open mind, as well as considering lessons from past experiences. Consider:

• Creating a list of potential ideas to solve the problem
• Grouping and categorizing similar solutions
• Prioritizing potential solutions based on feasibility, cost, and resources required
• Involving others to share diverse opinions and inputs

Evaluating and Selecting Solutions

Evaluate each potential solution, weighing its pros and cons. To facilitate decision-making, use techniques such as:

• SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Decision-making matrices
• Pros and cons lists
• Risk assessments

After evaluating, choose the most suitable solution based on effectiveness, cost, and time constraints.

Implementing and Monitoring the Solution

Implement the chosen solution and monitor its progress. Key actions include:

• Communicating the solution to relevant parties
• Setting timelines and milestones
• Assigning tasks and responsibilities
• Monitoring the solution and making adjustments as necessary
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the solution after implementation

Utilize feedback from stakeholders and consider potential improvements. Remember that problem-solving is an ongoing process that can always be refined and enhanced.

Problem-Solving Techniques

During each step, you may find it helpful to utilize various problem-solving techniques, such as:

• Brainstorming : A free-flowing, open-minded session where ideas are generated and listed without judgment, to encourage creativity and innovative thinking.
• Root cause analysis : A method that explores the underlying causes of a problem to find the most effective solution rather than addressing superficial symptoms.
• SWOT analysis : A tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a problem or decision, providing a comprehensive view of the situation.
• Mind mapping : A visual technique that uses diagrams to organize and connect ideas, helping to identify patterns, relationships, and possible solutions.

Brainstorming

When facing a problem, start by conducting a brainstorming session. Gather your team and encourage an open discussion where everyone contributes ideas, no matter how outlandish they may seem. This helps you:

• Generate a diverse range of solutions
• Encourage all team members to participate
• Foster creative thinking

When brainstorming, remember to:

• Reserve judgment until the session is over
• Encourage wild ideas
• Combine and improve upon ideas

Root Cause Analysis

For effective problem-solving, identifying the root cause of the issue at hand is crucial. Try these methods:

• 5 Whys : Ask “why” five times to get to the underlying cause.
• Fishbone Diagram : Create a diagram representing the problem and break it down into categories of potential causes.
• Pareto Analysis : Determine the few most significant causes underlying the majority of problems.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis helps you examine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to your problem. To perform a SWOT analysis:

• List your problem’s strengths, such as relevant resources or strong partnerships.
• Identify its weaknesses, such as knowledge gaps or limited resources.
• Explore opportunities, like trends or new technologies, that could help solve the problem.
• Recognize potential threats, like competition or regulatory barriers.

SWOT analysis aids in understanding the internal and external factors affecting the problem, which can help guide your solution.

Mind Mapping

A mind map is a visual representation of your problem and potential solutions. It enables you to organize information in a structured and intuitive manner. To create a mind map:

• Write the problem in the center of a blank page.
• Draw branches from the central problem to related sub-problems or contributing factors.
• Add more branches to represent potential solutions or further ideas.

Mind mapping allows you to visually see connections between ideas and promotes creativity in problem-solving.

Examples of Problem Solving in Various Contexts

In the business world, you might encounter problems related to finances, operations, or communication. Applying problem-solving skills in these situations could look like:

• Identifying areas of improvement in your company’s financial performance and implementing cost-saving measures
• Resolving internal conflicts among team members by listening and understanding different perspectives, then proposing and negotiating solutions
• Streamlining a process for better productivity by removing redundancies, automating tasks, or re-allocating resources

In educational contexts, problem-solving can be seen in various aspects, such as:

• Addressing a gap in students’ understanding by employing diverse teaching methods to cater to different learning styles
• Developing a strategy for successful time management to balance academic responsibilities and extracurricular activities
• Seeking resources and support to provide equal opportunities for learners with special needs or disabilities

Everyday life is full of challenges that require problem-solving skills. Some examples include:

• Overcoming a personal obstacle, such as improving your fitness level, by establishing achievable goals, measuring progress, and adjusting your approach accordingly
• Navigating a new environment or city by researching your surroundings, asking for directions, or using technology like GPS to guide you
• Dealing with a sudden change, like a change in your work schedule, by assessing the situation, identifying potential impacts, and adapting your plans to accommodate the change.
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What Is Creative Problem-Solving & Why Is It Important?

• 01 Feb 2022

One of the biggest hindrances to innovation is complacency—it can be more comfortable to do what you know than venture into the unknown. Business leaders can overcome this barrier by mobilizing creative team members and providing space to innovate.

There are several tools you can use to encourage creativity in the workplace. Creative problem-solving is one of them, which facilitates the development of innovative solutions to difficult problems.

Here’s an overview of creative problem-solving and why it’s important in business.

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What Is Creative Problem-Solving?

Research is necessary when solving a problem. But there are situations where a problem’s specific cause is difficult to pinpoint. This can occur when there’s not enough time to narrow down the problem’s source or there are differing opinions about its root cause.

In such cases, you can use creative problem-solving , which allows you to explore potential solutions regardless of whether a problem has been defined.

Creative problem-solving is less structured than other innovation processes and encourages exploring open-ended solutions. It also focuses on developing new perspectives and fostering creativity in the workplace . Its benefits include:

• Finding creative solutions to complex problems : User research can insufficiently illustrate a situation’s complexity. While other innovation processes rely on this information, creative problem-solving can yield solutions without it.
• Adapting to change : Business is constantly changing, and business leaders need to adapt. Creative problem-solving helps overcome unforeseen challenges and find solutions to unconventional problems.
• Fueling innovation and growth : In addition to solutions, creative problem-solving can spark innovative ideas that drive company growth. These ideas can lead to new product lines, services, or a modified operations structure that improves efficiency.

Creative problem-solving is traditionally based on the following key principles :

1. Balance Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Creative problem-solving uses two primary tools to find solutions: divergence and convergence. Divergence generates ideas in response to a problem, while convergence narrows them down to a shortlist. It balances these two practices and turns ideas into concrete solutions.

2. Reframe Problems as Questions

By framing problems as questions, you shift from focusing on obstacles to solutions. This provides the freedom to brainstorm potential ideas.

3. Defer Judgment of Ideas

When brainstorming, it can be natural to reject or accept ideas right away. Yet, immediate judgments interfere with the idea generation process. Even ideas that seem implausible can turn into outstanding innovations upon further exploration and development.

4. Focus on "Yes, And" Instead of "No, But"

Using negative words like "no" discourages creative thinking. Instead, use positive language to build and maintain an environment that fosters the development of creative and innovative ideas.

Creative Problem-Solving and Design Thinking

Whereas creative problem-solving facilitates developing innovative ideas through a less structured workflow, design thinking takes a far more organized approach.

Design thinking is a human-centered, solutions-based process that fosters the ideation and development of solutions. In the online course Design Thinking and Innovation , Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar leverages a four-phase framework to explain design thinking.

The four stages are:

• Clarify: The clarification stage allows you to empathize with the user and identify problems. Observations and insights are informed by thorough research. Findings are then reframed as problem statements or questions.
• Ideate: Ideation is the process of coming up with innovative ideas. The divergence of ideas involved with creative problem-solving is a major focus.
• Develop: In the development stage, ideas evolve into experiments and tests. Ideas converge and are explored through prototyping and open critique.
• Implement: Implementation involves continuing to test and experiment to refine the solution and encourage its adoption.

Creative problem-solving primarily operates in the ideate phase of design thinking but can be applied to others. This is because design thinking is an iterative process that moves between the stages as ideas are generated and pursued. This is normal and encouraged, as innovation requires exploring multiple ideas.

Creative Problem-Solving Tools

While there are many useful tools in the creative problem-solving process, here are three you should know:

Creating a Problem Story

One way to innovate is by creating a story about a problem to understand how it affects users and what solutions best fit their needs. Here are the steps you need to take to use this tool properly.

1. Identify a UDP

Create a problem story to identify the undesired phenomena (UDP). For example, consider a company that produces printers that overheat. In this case, the UDP is "our printers overheat."

2. Move Forward in Time

To move forward in time, ask: “Why is this a problem?” For example, minor damage could be one result of the machines overheating. In more extreme cases, printers may catch fire. Don't be afraid to create multiple problem stories if you think of more than one UDP.

3. Move Backward in Time

To move backward in time, ask: “What caused this UDP?” If you can't identify the root problem, think about what typically causes the UDP to occur. For the overheating printers, overuse could be a cause.

Following the three-step framework above helps illustrate a clear problem story:

• The printer is overused.
• The printer overheats.
• The printer breaks down.

You can extend the problem story in either direction if you think of additional cause-and-effect relationships.

4. Break the Chains

By this point, you’ll have multiple UDP storylines. Take two that are similar and focus on breaking the chains connecting them. This can be accomplished through inversion or neutralization.

• Inversion: Inversion changes the relationship between two UDPs so the cause is the same but the effect is the opposite. For example, if the UDP is "the more X happens, the more likely Y is to happen," inversion changes the equation to "the more X happens, the less likely Y is to happen." Using the printer example, inversion would consider: "What if the more a printer is used, the less likely it’s going to overheat?" Innovation requires an open mind. Just because a solution initially seems unlikely doesn't mean it can't be pursued further or spark additional ideas.
• Neutralization: Neutralization completely eliminates the cause-and-effect relationship between X and Y. This changes the above equation to "the more or less X happens has no effect on Y." In the case of the printers, neutralization would rephrase the relationship to "the more or less a printer is used has no effect on whether it overheats."

Even if creating a problem story doesn't provide a solution, it can offer useful context to users’ problems and additional ideas to be explored. Given that divergence is one of the fundamental practices of creative problem-solving, it’s a good idea to incorporate it into each tool you use.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a tool that can be highly effective when guided by the iterative qualities of the design thinking process. It involves openly discussing and debating ideas and topics in a group setting. This facilitates idea generation and exploration as different team members consider the same concept from multiple perspectives.

Hosting brainstorming sessions can result in problems, such as groupthink or social loafing. To combat this, leverage a three-step brainstorming method involving divergence and convergence :

• Have each group member come up with as many ideas as possible and write them down to ensure the brainstorming session is productive.
• Continue the divergence of ideas by collectively sharing and exploring each idea as a group. The goal is to create a setting where new ideas are inspired by open discussion.
• Begin the convergence of ideas by narrowing them down to a few explorable options. There’s no "right number of ideas." Don't be afraid to consider exploring all of them, as long as you have the resources to do so.

Alternate Worlds

The alternate worlds tool is an empathetic approach to creative problem-solving. It encourages you to consider how someone in another world would approach your situation.

For example, if you’re concerned that the printers you produce overheat and catch fire, consider how a different industry would approach the problem. How would an automotive expert solve it? How would a firefighter?

Be creative as you consider and research alternate worlds. The purpose is not to nail down a solution right away but to continue the ideation process through diverging and exploring ideas.

Continue Developing Your Skills

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, or business leader, learning the ropes of design thinking can be an effective way to build your skills and foster creativity and innovation in any setting.

If you're ready to develop your design thinking and creative problem-solving skills, explore Design Thinking and Innovation , one of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses. If you aren't sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

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