The Map · The Wider Landscape
Global ChallengesNothing happens in isolation.
The challenge you are exploring is part of a broader landscape of interconnected forces, transitions and global challenges.
Before starting your map, take a moment to explore this changing global landscape. Climate, technology, resources, geopolitics, health, society and the economy increasingly interact — creating new constraints, but also opening new possibilities.
The table below is a starting point, not a definitive list.
Review it. Challenge it. Complete it.
Add what is missing, remove what is not relevant, reformulate what does not feel right, and identify the forces that could most strongly shape the challenge you are exploring.
Key global challenges and forces of change
- Climate & ecological systems
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- Climate change
- Biodiversity protection
- Deforestation
- Ocean health
- Extreme weather
- Ecosystem resilience
- Energy & critical resources
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- Energy transition
- Energy price volatility
- Critical mineral availability
- Water scarcity
- Competition for strategic materials
- Strategic dependencies
- Food systems
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- Food security
- Resilient supply chains
- Climate impacts on agriculture
- Fertilizer and input availability
- Sustainable production
- Soil regeneration
- Economic & financial systems
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- Inflation
- Debt pressures
- Wealth inequality
- Cost-of-living pressures
- Financial resilience
- New economic models
- Geopolitics & international order
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- Great-power competition
- Regional conflicts
- Trade realignment
- Sanctions
- Fragmentation of the international order
- Strategic autonomy
- Public health
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- Pandemic preparedness
- Antimicrobial resistance
- Ageing populations
- Healthcare capacity
- Access to care
- Prevention and healthy longevity
- Information & institutions
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- Information integrity
- Trust in institutions
- Political polarization
- Institutional adaptability
- Shared facts
- New forms of governance
- Technology & autonomy
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- Artificial intelligence
- Automation
- Cybersecurity
- Privacy and surveillance
- Technological sovereignty
- Concentration of technological power
- Society & demographics
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- Demographic change
- Migration
- Cultural diversity
- Social cohesion
- Inclusion
- Intergenerational balance
The Method · Your Starting Map
Build your starting map
For each domain, decide how relevant it is to your exploration:
- Keep This matters to my challenge
- Add Something important is missing
- Refine I want to reformulate or specify it
- Remove This is not relevant to my exploration
Then ask
Which forces could shape your challenge most strongly?
Select up to five.
These forces will form the first contextual layer around your central challenge.
The Interactions · A Systemic Map
What else could shape the future?
The purpose is not to create an exhaustive catalogue of global problems.
It is to understand how major forces of change interact — and where new possibilities may emerge.
- A climate challenge can accelerate innovation in energy.
- Resource constraints can stimulate new materials and circular models.
- Demographic change can create new healthcare and societal needs.
- A technological breakthrough can transform industries, capabilities and behaviours.
- A geopolitical shift can create both new dependencies and new opportunities for autonomy.
Global challenges rarely evolve independently. They interact, reinforce or redirect one another — and together reshape the space of possibilities.
The objective is therefore to move from a list of individual challenges to a systemic map of interdependencies, transformations and opportunities.
Your map begins here.