In the Global Issues program, participants read a provided futuristic scenario based on one of the competition topics for that year. After reading, participants work through our 6-step problem-solving process. In competitive settings, there are two hours to write all six steps.
Registered participants in established regional programs will be provided booklets or access to FPSOnline for competition. Participants who are not typing their work into FPSOnline, usually choose between typing on a collaborative digital document or handwriting. The booklets attached to this article can be downloaded and used for practice, or by affiliates as they choose.
Team or Individual
Global Issues teams and individuals both complete all six steps within the two hour competition time. Teams write more challenges and solutions in steps one and three, and rank more solutions in step five, than individuals.
| Teams | Individuals | |
| Step 1 | 16 challenges | 8 challenges |
| Step 2 | 1 underlying problem | 1 underlying problem |
| Step 3 | 16 solutions | 8 solutions |
| Step 4 | 5 criteria | 5 criteria |
| Step 5 | 8 ranked solutions | 5 ranked solutions |
| Step 6 | 1 discussion of criteria & action plan | 1 discussion of criteria & action plan |

