Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities

by Adam Kahane

The Mont Fleur approach was important and unusual because it was exceptionally well suited to solving highly complex problems—to enacting profound social innovations. Our process was systemic, building scenarios for South Africa as a whole, taking account of social, political, economic, and international dynamics. It was emergent, because it recognized that precedents and grand plans would be of limited use, and instead used creative teamwork to identify and influence the country’s critical current choices. And it was participatory, involving leaders from most of the key national constituencies. The mother of this South African invention was the necessity of its transitional vacuum: a highly complex system, in a fundamentally new context, in which no single authority had the wisdom or legitimacy to enforce solutions. With the practical option of intervention from “above” unavailable, South Africans had no choice but to rely on the miraculous option of working together.