Should We Continue? Some Diagnostic Questions

This threshold question brings us full circle to the first principle of regional collaboration: regional collaboration is compelling when people realize that they are more likely to achieve their interests by thinking and acting interdependently than by acting independently. In other words, is there a compelling reason to continue?

In addition to the framework and set of tools presented earlier to help answer that question, consider the following diagnostic questions:

• Has the regional initiative accomplished all that it set out to do?
• Is anything left undone that needs to be addressed?
• If the regional initiative disbanded tomorrow, what would happen?
• What good things might happen (do other people now how the capacity to collaborate regionally without the initiative's support)?
• What bad things might happen (would the problem recur, would needs go unmet, would opportunities go unanswered)?