The Solution Accelerator


The Solution Accelerator is an informal political institution that encourages and enables organizations, groups and individuals to work together to solve common problems.

How does it work?

We work with local, regional and international partners to create conditions favorable to the negotiation of self-governing agreements. We measure and make sure there is enough inclusion, common understanding, trust, and basic democratic skills. Think of building a greenhouse to create conditions favorable to the growth of plants, with the temperature warm enough, the soil and air moist enough, with enough nutrients in the soil.

What does it look like on the ground?

Every four months we conduct interviews with dozens of the most influential organizations, groups, and individuals in a situation—local, regional, and international; civil society, government, and private sector; both “good” actors and “bad.” We call these the “prime actors.” We anonymize and share the interview information with the prime actors, through a password protected website and gatherings.

At the same time, any prime actor may begin to explore negotiations about a chosen problem with other prime actors and other relevant organizations. For each chosen problem, we facilitate a sequence of structured dialogues, in which we support participants in crafting a self-governing agreement.

Here is a little about our project in 2021, when we set up Solution Accelerators in 10 villages in Afghanistan.

What is the benefit of a Solution Accelerator?

Collaborative problem solving, and successful implementation of solutions—instead of stuck conflict and repeated failure.

Who most benefits from a Solution Accelerator?

Those those civil society activists, investors, politicians, government agencies, or businesses who, in complex circumstances, to get what they want, need a number of interrelated agreements to succeed.

Who owns an Solution Accelerator?

Any can fund a Solution Accelerator but the funder may not a) exclude others from participating in interviews, b) interfere with the interview data, or c) interfere with the sequences of structured dialogues. The information generated through interviews is shared with all prime actors. Once formed, the self-governing agreements are independent of the Solution Accelerator. What the funder can do, of course, is stop funding.

More about the conditions the Solution Accelerator measures and strengthens:

The Solution Accelerator generates inclusion, common understanding, trust and basic collaboration skills among a location or situation’s prime actors, and self-governing agreements to address their chosen problems or conflicts.

  • Inclusion:

    • A ranking of potential prime actors according to influence, and inclusion of those prime actors in the Solution Accelerator, including “spoilers”

    • The stance of each prime actor toward the problem or conflict the negotiations are aiming to solve

    • The commitment of each prime actor toward the society in which an agreement will be implemented

    • An understanding of the political, economic, and cultural capacity of the society in which an agreement will be implemented, to support and sustain the agreement

    • Exogenous threats to the society and any agreement to be implemented in that society. 

  • Common understanding

    • A website available to prime actors that shares information gained from interviews with prime actors (the data disaggregated for anonymity and organized for simplicity) in English and the dominant language(s) of the society in which agreements will be implemented.

    • Regular educational gatherings, after each new round of interviews.

  • Trust

    • Individual and small-group practices to reduce the negative effects of past conflicts

    • Community rituals to reduce the negative effects of past conflicts.

    • Ordering and timing the inclusion of prime actors and others actors into structured dialogues, to grow and maintain trust while also supporting the emergence of the most effective robust solutions to chosen problem.

  • Collaborative skills and self-governance

    • Technical support for prime actors they negotiate self-governing agreements

    • Partnership support for prime actors as they implement agreements.

    • A path to ownership of the Solution Accelerator itself.