It’s good to be home in Seattle following a business trip to London. While I enjoyed the Farnborough International Air Show, notably touring the Washington-built Boeing 787 Dreamliner, it was the clunky, bold, ‘peacetime’ experiment in coalition government that made me reflect most deeply about our home.

The British are nervously experimenting with a coalition, divided Liberal Democrat and Conservative government, an idea that is easy to dismiss as unworkable and unwise.

Yet moving beyond cynicism it is a Team of Rivals of Ideas.

There is no question that New Labour, booted from power after 13 years, was paralyzed by the lack of courageous honesty about the deep structural issues facing the country. The party, it seems to me as a complete outsider, simply forgot how to say no to its friends and had lost its grounding to govern.

You can’t help but sense the British are feeling the same tinges of a ‘hangover’ that Americans felt following eight years of the Bush Administration. Following years of plenty, now the sober reality of deficits, lack of financial discipline and other structural challenges have put everyone in a more reflective, serious and insightful mood. It’s time to get back to the work of the unglamorous side of governing.

You can almost imagine the weight in the room during the private discussions this week in Washington, D.C. between Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama. Fortunately, they seem to be intellectually interested in working together in more than simply political ways.

Perhaps Britain’s grand experiment will be a humiliating failure politically, but at least they tried something outside of the comfort zone of stereotypes that required thought and risk.

And what of us?

Perhaps the most obvious teachable moment for us here at the state level is that we are now in a time where even our mighty federal government is unable to offer much relief to state capitals. It’s time to look inward within our state not outward to Washington, D.C. for solutions and a fiscal policy that is sustainable. The likelihood of meaningful federal dollars this year and next seems unlikely at best.

And yet the big picture problems continue their ruthless march forward. We all know the short list of challenges by heart:

Our strategy to maintain a manufacturing base seems sincere but naïve in a viciously competitive global environment. Our service-based economy sometimes feels like a vicious race toward low skilled, low wage jobs. We pretend that our schools are so much better than they really are. We wait for word of whether we’ll receive $250 million in Race to the Top funds all the while knowing it’s no better than a 50/50 chance at best. Health care costs are literally crushing local, county and state governments while we sit flat footed hoping for cost controls that may turn out to be a total illusion.

The University of Washington and our higher education institutions struggle under both an old regulatory model and shifting sands of resources.

As our state’s anxiety rises, we criticize public employees for following a well-worn political script that we ourselves have written over decades. We need to respectfully, thoughtfully challenge our employees to partner with us to manage today’s financial reality not simply blame them for successfully negotiating generous labor deals during intoxicating times.

The goal itself—in attempting to seize the opportunity of this crisis–is not to reduce the footprint of state government. The goal is to build a modern, nimble, innovative and engaged state government that better serves the public at a better price. The goal is value.

Public officials and citizens from London to Olympia are struggling to find the moral grounding to move outside of our comfort zones. Now is the time for all-hands on deck, a Team of Rivals of ideas.

We are so much more than what we’ve become.

Your partner in service,

Reuven.