Is inviting everyone to the meeting holding back global cooperation? | Qahir Dhanani

Global collaboration faces a significant crisis of trust, requiring a shift away from slow, consensus-driven multilateralism toward more agile, focused strategies. Attempting to achieve global agreement among nearly 200 countries often results in the least objectionable outcome rather than transformative change. Instead, international collaboration expert Qahir Dhanani advocates for "coalitions of the willing"—small, dynamic groups of diverse actors, including governments, businesses, and civil society, that act boldly to solve specific challenges. By serving as early adopters and proving the viability of new models, these coalitions can effectively push global standards forward, as seen in the development of credit card interoperability and the LEAF coalition for forest finance. Applying this approach to organizational management allows teams to bypass bureaucratic inertia and address complex problems through targeted, high-impact partnerships that build momentum and trust.