Dr. Scilla Elworthy: A Business Plan for Peace
Dear Subscribers,
Birth is a powerful metaphor for the creation of just about anything.
It’s a good one for me right now as my kids have flown the coop and motherhood is no longer the big part of my identity that it once was.
I’d say I’m about 4.5 to 5 months "pregnant" with birthing the new gender intelligence part of my collaborative intelligence business.
I have a number of emerging offerings that I feel super excited about and will tell you about as they are ready.
One that is fully formed and being delivered is:
Gender Conversations for the 21st Century – a facilitated dialogue between men and women. In the wake of #metoo, we need space inside organizations and within communities for men and women to talk to each other. Dialogue is NOT a debate but rather a safe container designed for deeper conversation and shifts in understanding. It can end, if desired, with some creative strategic thinking together.
Another offering in the oven and soon to be baked is Crazy, Sexy Jiu Jitsu: Powerful Negotiation Skills for Women. This is a re-working of the negotiation skills training that I have delivered worldwide for three decades – but re-designed just for women globally, to build on the special strengths we have, and to re-wire the predictable traps we can fall into. So stay tuned for this and let me know if you are interested in my customizing something for your organization.
We need to shake so much up in the world.
Inside ourselves
In our relationships
In our organizations
And planet-wide
My next guest on the podcast is shaking the globe up – in a big way.
Dr. Scilla Elworthy Ph D. is a three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the Oxford Research Group, which she founded in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. Scilla founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas. She has been an adviser to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up“The Elders”, an independent body of global leaders working for peace, and her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed 1,400,000 times. Her latest book, The Business Plan for Peace is a clear and very readable how-to to create a world beyond war. Scilla also co-founded Rising Women, Rising World in 2013 and Femme Q in 2016 to establish the qualities of feminine intelligence that are so needed by both women and men to build a safer world.
For me, this guest, more clearly than anyone, links to my passion of connecting gender and peace. I could think of no-one better than Scilla to speak to women of the world about why it’s time to step into our leadership on the issue of war and peace.
“We have research-based evidence that indicates that preventing war is not difficult” Scilla tells us. “We know what we can do and we know what we shouldn’t be doing in order to get war to stop--we just haven’t done it. The first thing we need to stop doing is spending $1,686 billion annually on militarization. $30 billion would eliminate starvation worldwide and $10 billion would bring clean water to every child on the planet. Many people haven’t noticed how enormous this spending really is and how much it is costing society.”
Scilla describes how, in the last 20 years or so grassroots peacebuilding organizations worldwide working within their local communities have sprung up like mushrooms through the cement and grown in number from 350 to 1600! She tells the story of a woman named Gulalai Ismail who lives in Northwest Pakistan –perhaps the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, and the same place from whence came Malala. Through her conflict prevention efforts, Gulalai has been able to dissuade hundreds of suicide bombers from their mission -- conflict prevention at its finest.
In the interview, Scilla observes that ironically she has realized that the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council are also the biggest arms sellers in the world. Let me repeat that -- the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council are also the biggest arms sellers in the world. This is a situation that must change if we want to create a planet where wars are a phenomenon of the past.
Susan and Scilla talk about the amazing example of Leymah Gbowee and her Nobel award winning work to end the civil war in Liberia. Scilla has gotten to know many grassroots organizations globally who are working to prevent war in their regions and has found that the organizations that are woman-run are having a greater impact. She provides an example of a violent episode where a crowd was about to lynch someone. A trained woman would enter the mob and raise her hand, palm forward and shout, “Stop this. Go home. Your mother would be ashamed of you.” There would be complete silence and the crowd would disband.
Dr. Elworthy does not use the word “patriarchy” much because she believes that both men and women are capable of embodying what she calls “masculine intelligence” and “feminine intelligence.” The reality of the history of the last 3000 years is that most, if not all, major decisions have been made using masculine intelligence and what we are left with is a series of wars.
Scilla talks about her early childhood and the seeds that were planted in her to become a peacebuilder, as well as the inner critic she has had to face to do her best work. She advises that, when you combine what breaks your heart with what you’re skilled at, you will be most effective and ultimately full of hope and joy instead of anguish and anxiety. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is the most joyful person she has ever met and he has experienced some of the most brutal things in the world.
Click on the button below to listen to the amazing work of an amazing woman. Also, please go to my new Collaborative Intelligence Store, a curation of useful books and tools to build collaboration, if you would like to purchase a copy of A Business Plan for Peace.
My warm regards,
Susan
Joe Washington: Ten Years in South Sudan with the United Nations
Dear Colleagues and Subscribers,
Sometimes I wonder why I am doing this podcast.
I mean, it's a lot of work and I need to pay bills, and all of that.
And then I tune into to the world we have created around us -- Syria, climate change, people making huge money off of weapons, guns, fear and crisis, the "two-tiered" gender system we have going on planet-wide -- and I get motivated. I remind myself of two quotes I feature on the podcast site, one by management consultant Pete Drucker, "The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It", and the other by Buckminster Fuller, "Don't Fight Against the Existing Reality. Create a New Reality that Makes the Existing Reality Obsolete." These sentiments underlie what excites me about the podcast and the work of the amazing people I have been interviewing.
I also, in my less confident moments, think "yowza", my business positioning is too broad -- peacebuilding, my organizational consulting practice specializing in collaborative strategies and gender intelligence -- my audience will not get the connections. But it seems to be my purpose and passion in life to make the links between how we relate to each other in our smaller systems like our workplaces and what is happening with our largest system, the planet. So I will "keep on keepin on" and hopefully all will get clearer.
One thing I know for certain is that clarity is everything, for me, for my organizational clients. When there is a clear awareness, things change for the better. The upcoming interview with Dr. Scilla Elworthy is a great example of the power of clarity where she talks about her new book "A Business Plan for Peace" and her message to women worldwide. Stay tuned for Scilla to be released shortly.
In this current episode, we are looking at one of the largest efforts to "build common ground" on the planet, the Peacekeeping Mission of UNMISS in South Sudan, only surpassed in size by MONUSCO in the Congo. I support the efforts of the UN and also, after many years of work throughout the system, am well aware of the challenges it faces and how it can improve. I get irritated by UN bashers when one compares its relatively tiny budget to the trillions the world is spending on militarization.
I believe like Scilla and many others that ending war and its affiliated enterprises is well within our grasp in our lifetimes, that climate change is demanding it, that women need to step into our leadership on this now, and that one of the best ways to wind militarization down is to build new post-patriarchal organizational and family systems. Please review the interviews with Riane Eisler, Peter Hawkins and John Horgan for more about what is possible.
So, here is the summary of my interview with Joe Washington from UNMISS, written by my new podcast collaborator Stephen Gray.
The United Nations is a polarising institution. Some people look to the UN as a trusted expert and moral voice concerning issues related to the environment, development and poverty alleviation, human health, and peace and security. Others see United Nations agencies, funds, and programs as highly bureaucratic, ineffective, and outdated. The United Nations might have weaknesses, but when it comes to the complex challenges of peacebuilding in some of the world's toughest contexts, can we imagine a viable alternative if the United Nations were not to play a leading role? And what is the nature of that role? How does it relate to the work of other stakeholders in conflict settings, and what is life like for the diverse mix of international peacebuilders who choose to make far-flung countries their home in the pursuit of peace?
Joe Washington recently retired from the post of Chief Training Officer for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. His more than ten years of experience of working throughout the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Sudan and South Sudan spanned these countries' historic peace process and partitioning into two separate states, and the subsequent violence that engulfed South Sudan in the years after independence. Prior to this Joe served for more than two decades as an adjunct or visiting professor, researcher, lecturer, or director of programs for various academic institutions in Europe and the United States in the fields of conflict resolution and human rights.
Joe's personal warmth and acute sense for the human, relational dimensions of effective peacebuilding are matched by deep insight on the strengths and weaknesses of the United Nations. This episode will be of particular interest to people who are interested in this organisation or the broader challenges of peacebuilding working in a difficult context like South Sudan. For those that have experienced either, Joe's words might be therapeutic! Some highlights include:
Joe's recollection of what motivated him to pursue an international career, and the role models and educational pathways that led him to a United Nations career;
The need as a peacebuilder for reflective practice, whereby you try to realise that you see the world with different eyes and may have different priorities than your counterparts. Joe reminds us of the need for peacebuilders to have high cross-cultural sensitivity, especially when local counterparts have basic needs and livelihoods concerns that international peacebuilders don't;
The separation between local and international stakeholders in peacebuilding settings is again discussed in relation to the relative wealth of international people in poor countries, which can drive up local prices and reinforce divisions between insiders and outsiders that makes fostering local ownership difficult;
Joe dissects United Nations infamous bureaucratic challenges, and argues that instead of finger pointing at other parts of the UN system, staff should focus on their circle of influence, and work more collaboratively in order to expand that circle;
The reality of 'camp life' is laid bare, as Joe paints a picture of daily life living in shipping containers in a United Nations compound, and describes the lifestyle in remote areas in the midst of conflict;
In response to Susan's question on the value of the United Nations as opposed to other actors that could potentially use the same resources more effectively, Joe suggests - with good reason - that the peacekeeping mission might have prevented a genocide in this country in the last few years.
A fascinating man and life story - take a listen.
My warm regards,
Susan
Prof. Peter Hawkins: Gender, "WeQ" and the Urgent Need for Collaborative Intelligence in Organizations
Dear Friends,
Welcome to my new blog “Collaborative Intelligence”.
It’s purpose is twofold:
- To let you know about the latest episodes of The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide in which I interview amazing people about the creative processes they are using to build collaborative cultures in small and large systems alike; and
- To periodically showcase some cool ideas that I use, or come across, about building collaborative intelligence -- of which gender intelligence is a critical subset -- inside organizations.
Why talk about building peace, collaborative and gender intelligence all in the same breath? It’s my belief that “getting gender right” inside our organizations and families -- the two building blocks of our human world -- is the single most important initiative we can undertake to create a more peaceful and therefore more sustainable world.
If you are interested in the family and relationship aspect of getting gender right in the 21st century, please check out the amazing work of Terry Real.
If you are interested in the organizational aspect, go no further.
In this current episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast, I will explore with Professor Peter Hawkins the relationship between gender, organizational culture and building a more peaceful world.
Professor Peter Hawkins, based in the UK, has been working with companies for decades on leadership culture and change initiatives. He is a leading expert in what he calls Systemic Team Coaching -- kind of the infrastructure for building collaboration in systems. I was the lucky recipient of some of his excellent training which is similar in theory and practice to the extensive training I received from the Gestalt Organizations and Systems Designs Program.
When I first met Peter what really stood out to me is the way he has integrated professional excellence with emotional sanity and high integrity. This is a guy who has done his work – both the inner stuff and the outer. A “global parent” if you will. We need a lot of these right now.
I especially love how Peter gets executive leadership teams of some of the most powerful global companies to consider all stakeholders of their decisions including our collective grandchildren and our more than human world. He gets his clients to think “forward back and outside in”, very much like the Native American concept of thinking 7 Generations out.
Peter is brilliant and deep, and I think you will find it well worth your time to listen to him. Here are some highlights of the episode.
- He will address with great sophistication my question about whether there is a relationship between getting gender and diversity right inside organizations and creating a more harmonious world;
- He will address the idea that the era of heroic leadership is dead and gone, and that we face an urgent need to develop collective leadership and collaborative intelligence;
- He will talk about what men and women can do together as leaders in our places of work that we couldn't do apart, and why this kind of leadership is so critically important for our organizations today;
- He will speak directly to men in organizations, whether they are leadership or rank and file, and provide valuable guidance about how to think and proceed in the #MeToo era.
- He will address the need for companies to rethink their career design models, which he says are designed for twentieth century white men, not twenty-first century human beings;
- He will address a question that has always nagged at me, about how companies can “get gender right” and still stay competitive -- in other words, not feel like they're doing the right thing, only to fall behind in a hyper-competitive world;
- And lastly, he will talk poignantly about the impact of absentee fathers, either because of wars or work and offer some profound words of wisdom to guide us as we go forward into this complex and exciting future together.
I know you will enjoy this deeply intelligent and thoughtful man talk about issues that are so critical for our time.
Listen here.
My warm regards,
Susan
Dr. Riane Eisler: Partnership or Domination - Whispers from the Past and a Way Forward
Dear Subscribers,
In these darker days (we are fast approaching the winter solstice in the US), and with the darkness created by the Harvey Weinstein's of the world, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un putting us on the brink of nuclear war, fires raging in Los Angeles, and the Middle East being set on fire by Trump's decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, I bring you one of the brightest lights and clearest thinkers about a path forward.
Dr. Riane Eisler is President of the Center for Partnership Studies and internationally known as a systems scientist, attorney working for the human rights of women and children, and author of groundbreaking books such as The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 26 foreign editions, and The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.
She has been hugely influential around the world and, if you haven’t already heard her name, you will now as she is frequently quoted by some of the most interesting thought leaders.
In this episode, Dr. Eisler will focus on the relationship between gender and issues of war and peace – a topic about which I am most passionate. When I read The Chalice and the Blade in the 80’s my eyes were opened! She elegantly divided the history of the planet into models of domination and models of partnership – and observed (like Bill Ury in his book Getting to Peace) that models of domination are more recent in our history and, for the vast majority of human time on earth, we have been living in partnership.
Dr. Eisler clearly connects the dots of societies that have male-dominated family structures and those that support militarism and violence as a method of influence. She points out that the “regressives” in the USA (and around the world) get the connection between the family and national/international policy and have systematically pressured women back to their more traditional, subservient roles. She wants “progressives” to connect these dots as well and provide leadership for a new economic system where all things "feminine" -- child care, the environment, unpaid work, are clearly reflected in our economic metrics of what contributes to our collective well-being.
Children get a profound imprinting when they are raised in patriarchal or dominator families, where they learn that some humans are more valuable than others and that violence and strong-man rule is an acceptable method of influence. This translates to support for a domination system that not only supports a planet in conflict but polarizes groups by gender, race, tribe, and religion. As Dr. Eisler points out -- "it doesn't have to be this way."
Please listen to this episode here. We need people to more fully understand the brilliance that Dr. Eisler has to share with us and this path forward.
Please note -- this is the last email you will be receiving from me at this email address. Future emails will come from susan@susancoleman.global and all episodes of The Peacebuilding Podcast will be posted on my new website, susancoleman.global LLC.
As always, thanks for your interest in The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide.
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Charles Crawford: Reflections of a former British Ambassador, on Building Peace in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dear Subscribers,
In this latest episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast, I interview Charles Crawford, who was the British Ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996-1998, Serbia and Montenegro from 2001-2003, and Poland 2003-2007. Crawford previously served as a British Diplomat to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, South Africa, and Russia.
I got to know Charles when we were working together conducting a leadership development program for senior women in the Afghan government. Crawford led the component on speech writing – a topic he knows a good deal about. (See Speeches for Leaders, his website and other info in the show notes). He is a great storyteller with an amazing assortment of anecdotes from a rich and interesting life.
In this episode, Crawford talks about his early days as an ambassador in war-torn Bosnia. With colorful detail, he tells the tale of being part of the ambassadorial group attempting to bring conflicting parties together across ethnic lines. He describes his early days arriving in Bosnia and seeing the absolute destruction of war. With insight, he observes that the places massacres occurred in the Bosnian war were the very same as where they happened in World War I, II and maybe earlier -- perhaps “pay back” for sins inflicted on grandparents. He describes the large industry that pops up during peace negotiations – foreign nationals pouring in, eating too much, getting paid too much in comparison with the local population, an assortment of issues arising including things like prostitution. He provides perspective such as – the internet did not exist when he went to Bosnia and reflects on the potential uses the internet can provide now in peacebuilding efforts. He talks about the dilemma that, if you want a deal, you may have to engage the worst leaders – something that will suit the extreme ends of a conflict and might not serve the moderate middle.
Most noticeably, in contrast to the many processes explored on this podcast, he describes the typical but top-down approach of building peace in Bosnia and the very real influence of the American president at the time, Bill Clinton, who needed an international policy success -- with ordinary people having little or no say whatsoever in this peace process. Charles was also in South Africa as Mandela came out of prison and Apartheid came to an end. Observing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process held there a bit later, he talks about the difference between a justice and reconciliation lens with the latter not applied in Bosnia. It's reconciliation that's needed, he posits, if you want a real break from the past.
Please enjoy this episode here. Charles Crawford is an amazingly bright and interesting teller of a complicated and relevant tale for those interested in creating a more peaceful world. Check out the show notes on the website for how to reach Charles and a wealth of information that he provides.
As always, thanks for your interest in The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide.
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Susan Coleman: Igniting Women - The Pathway to Planetary Peace
Dear Subscribers,
As I mentioned in my last post, I had an amazing trip to Shangai in May and wanted to give you some details. It was such a peak experience for which I am very grateful!
I was invited to speak at a conference of about 1000 woman, called the International Elite Women’s Summit, the theme of which was: More Courage; More Strength. It was the fourth time this conference has been held, drawing women from many parts of China and, to come extent, other parts of Asia.
In the words of the organizers, the conference was "a high-level women’s forum of a large scale, high cohesiveness and great influence so far in China. With the courteous reception of the highest standard, it invites distinguished female guests with international influence and the right of speech to discuss the future of women together. It serves as the first platform where key female figures in various industries including well-known female entrepreneurs, female political VIP, emerging career elites, writers, renowned scholars, media professionals and others, come together for idea exchanges."
My understanding from a Chinese friend who grew up in Shangai is that, during Mao’s time, women made a lot of advances and were essentially equal to men in most regards. In the China of today, however, things have reverted -- kind of to what they were for woman in the United States in the 1950s. For instance, it would have shamed my Dad for my Mom to work outside of the home, and that is, I think, the way it is for a lot of women in China today. I was told that so many Chinese women are feeling kind of hopeless, stuck and apparently go through hoops to come, sometimes from far away, to this conference in Shanghai. It costs about $60, which is a large sum for many.
If you have the time, money, passport and Visa, which I know for many on the planet are huge hurdles, and the willingness to sit for 14 hours on a plane, it’s pretty much straight-forward to go from New York to Shanghai. There are daily flights and -- as I see on a lot on these long-haul flights I take to Africa and to Asia -- a steady stream of people who almost appear like regular commuters. I remember one client in Gabon, basically going home monthly to see his family and sounding very much like a commuter the way he talked about it.
I was met at the airport by Claire (the name she actually uses in China), a 28-year-old, Chinese woman who couldn’t have been more fun and better host. She greeted me with an incredibly beautiful bouquet of flowers, a driver, and got me situated in the Grand Hyatt, which is one of the nicest hotels in Shanghai. After I took a short nap, Claire and her boyfriend, Shambo, took be down to the Yangtze river where there were lots of boats, glittering lights, foreigners, a beautiful temperature, plenty of greenery. Shanghai is a very civilized city, not too crowded and felt very safe and extremely modern. I really liked it there and would love to go back.
The next day we got the show underway. These folks completely had their "major event" act together -- with the technology, the hair and the make-up. I felt like I was a movie star! The digital world there seems far ahead of even where it is in New York.
I felt pretty humbled as I was treated like a star, but was among true stars. I was the only Western woman in a line-up of famous women from Japan and from China.
The one I knew the most was Marie Kondo, the best-selling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which so influenced me and many people I know. Following the book's recommendation, I remember going around my house and picking up every object to determine if it "inspired joy in me" and if the answer was no, getting rid of it. Anyway, the speaker line-up consisted of a top Chinese actor, top Chinese journalist, a top Chinese anchorwoman, so it was really an honor to be among them.
The topic of my speech was: Igniting Women: The Pathway to Planetary Peace and you can listen to it at the link below. It went super well. I had 30 minutes total, but with direct translation really 15. I’ve become increasingly interested in transparency when I talk to audiences and I was super transparent here, using my own personal and professional story, both the highs and the lows, the successes and the ruptures, to talk about why I am so passionate about the need for women to wake up and step into our power together.
Mostly the audience was younger and I think people generally spoke very little English so I don’t know how many understood my original words. I was dependent on the translator, who was renowned to be excellent, but some of the bilingual women were not happy with how he translated some of the ideas. Note to self: Be really careful about how the translator is translating concepts. I went through the speech with him ahead of time, but perhaps some of the concepts made him uncomfortable? Not sure.
One of my favourite memories was at the end of the conference. A sea of young women came up to me wanting to take a selfie with me and telling me “I love you!”. I think that was perhaps the only English that they spoke. I doubt they actually loved me, but it was really wonderful energy nonetheless. I was amazed by the founder of the conference. The English name of the sponsoring organization is Action Pie, and the founder is Chi-Chi Liu. She is a small woman, quiet, and seems amazingly impactful. I didn’t see any evidence of a husband, a family, and it wasn't clear how she’s raising the money. Nonetheless, Action Pie has over a million members from all over China and is growing.
I'm sure this is all facilitated by the internet. I was amazed by WeChat and the widespread use of that app, which we don’t have here in the United States. Travelling around with Claire, she literally did everything with WeChat -- paid for the cab, connected with people everywhere. Apparently, everything is done on WeChat and Weibo, which is the Facebook of China, as Facebook is not allowed.
Please enjoy my talk. You can listen here.
Thanks for reading this and for listening.
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Dean Foster: Crossing Cultures
Dear Subscribers,
Exciting news at The Peacebuilding Podcast! We have a new feel, rythym and sound. Please check it out. You’re going to hear a lot more of me -- which may or may or may not be a good thing :). Let’s see.
Because of our upgrading, we have been slow to get out this next episode. Scott Grunberg, my 28 year-old sound /producer has his finger on the pulse of younger listeners (a big user of podcasts) and had some great ideas of ways to make the show more magnetic. Our goal -- 10,000 listeners. So, we’ve mixed it up to make content both useful for people working in related professional fields -- but also those who know nothing about peacebuilding except that they live on the planet and want to hear some cool, hopeful stories in contrast to the daily, depressing media cycle.
I just came back from an amazing trip to Shanghai where I had the privilege of speaking to 1000 women. The theme of the conference was “More Courage, More Strength” and my particular focus “Igniting Women: The Pathway to Planetary Peace”. This podcast has had me thinking about the best possible interventions to bring an end to the highly destructive military operations raging on the planet today. My conclusion? Empower women across the board, from the family system right up to the global level. So, stay tuned – in the next episode I will air the speech and give you highlights of the experience.
If you have a chance, check out the play “Oslo”. I went recently in New York City. It’s about a back-channel process orchestrated by a Norwegian diplomat, Mona Juul, who I hope to have on the podcast soon, and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, in secretly organizing talks that led to the Oslo Accords—an agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) that was signed in 1993. The play does a good job of showing how formal diplomatic structures can get in the way of creating real dialogue and, to my mind, just how antiquated the whole system of international relations is. In juxtoposition to top down, “famous person” or “strong-man” interventions, the field of organization development has shown us many more “whole systems” approaches – a number of which we are exploring on this podcast.
My guest in this episode is someone I go way back with -- actually, to the beginning of my career in working in the negotiation and conflict resolution field. Dean Foster’s name has become kind of synonymous with building intercultural competency. He has worked in just about 100 countries, has been a speaker at major business schools in the United States including Harvard and Columbia, is the host on CNN of the nationwide “Doing Business in…” series and is also a frequent guest commentator on culture, global work and social issues for global media networks.
What is culture? I like to say culture is to a group what personality is to an individual. It’s a group’s personality, the unique way that that group has come up with of dealing with our common human challenge of staying alive on the planet. Culture becomes a “problem” in conflict both when people have limited understanding about worldview differences and when conflict is handled in an adversarial way, which leads to quick polarization around culture and identity.
I caught up with Dean for this interview somewhere between a trip to Prague and New York. I like this quote from him early on in the episode: “When faced with something we don’t understand or that we find mystifying, we always have a choice. We can decide to approach it as an opportunity for growth and learning. . . or we can approach it fearfully -- as something dangerous”.
Dean talks about his early “cross-cultural education” growing up in Brooklyn, New York and reflects on the shift of globalisation over the last twenty-five, thirty years. The conventional wisdom in the multinational world when he and I got started in our professional work was that we have a global multi-national culture now that transcends any individual culture. While there is some truth to this, it's far from reality. Dean says that he sees in millennials a greater acceptance that cultural differences exist, but not necessarily a real increase in understanding about what those differences are.
Dean tells stories about some projects he did, supporting an American multi-national working with a Russian team, about China, and about multi-cultural teams where so much business is done these days.
More information about Dean Foster and his work can be found in the show notes.
Please enjoy the episode here.
Thanks for reading this, thanks for listening.
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Bob Stains: The Public Conversations Project
Dear Subscribers,
Before I tell you about the current episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast, I want to give you some current “stats” and get your input into two questions. Thank you so much for your comments. I really appreciate them and, will do my best to respond.
The Stats. . .
Podcasting is a super cool medium and, I think growing fast. As I said in my very first episode, one of the reasons I do this is simply that I can. From my own home office, with a mic and the internet, and a bunch of supportive friends and colleagues, I can interview people all over the world who are doing great work and broadcast those interviews to you. Amazing, really. Hopefully, it’s making a difference. The Peacebuilding Podcast is now a little over a year old.
The stats as of today are:
54 -- Plays in the last 24 hours
25 – Countries downloading (e.g. Lebanon, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, The United States, Korea, Colombia)
290 -- Subscribers to this blog. (Many people access the podcast directly through Itunes or Soundcloud and are not blog subscribers. I haven’t been tracking some of the other platforms like Stitcher.)
24 -- Episodes to date, 2 in production.
We are celebrating these accomplishments, and want to do much more.
My two question for you. . .
Target audience/format of the podcast: -- Who should the podcast be for? When I launched, I framed my target audience as: global consultants, mediators, coaches, diplomats, entrepreneurs and others who are interested in process interventions to build common ground. I had an audience from my professional world in mind. One listener who is not part of that world and who listens regularly said some of my comments left her feeling on the outside of the conversation. Another said that he felt that this podcast could have a super broad reach if I stayed away from trade-specific references in the interviews and just elicited the best stories from my guests, with as much detail as possible about how they did what they did and what the experience was like. Anyway, if you have any thoughts on this topic, I would love to hear them. What would most interest you?
Sponsorship Ideas -- With every episode, this podcast is growing -- by country, by no of listeners, by exposure on twitter and other social media. We are doing it on a shoe string, of course. I and my interns volunteer their time and, and my sound editor and web/social media person might as well be as they don’t make much money from their talented efforts. So if you have any ideas for either a company or individual that might like to be a sponsor -- simply because they support the work or because they want their brand associated with it -- please let us know.
Thanks ahead of time for any of your thoughts or feedback.
So, on to the latest episode, and the dialogue processes created by The Public Conversations Project aka Essential Partners.
In the current political climate in the United States, there is a heightened interest in bringing people who don’t agree together for dialogue. One of the first to do this work was the Public Conversations Project (PCP) out of Boston over the hugely contentious issue of abortion.
In the 1980’s and early '90’s, the abortion conflict got to a feverish pitch with allegations of “baby killers” and “woman haters”, resulting in the murders of two women outside an abortion clinic. In response, Laura Chasin, the founder of PCP, became the co-facilitator of a multi-year, clandestine dialogue between Boston area “pro-life” and “pro-choice” leaders, aka “The Leaders Dialogue”. In the years that followed, Laura and others applied this method, which combines aspects of family therapy, neuroscience and mediation, to a wide variety of communities and issues including same-sex marriage, immigration, gun rights, gender issues, peacebuilding, and many others.
Over the last 22 years, Bob Stains has helped build the PCP. He is a pioneer of the modern dialogue movement, a seasoned facilitator of challenging conversations about identity, religion and values and has trained over 20,000 professionals in the PCP dialogue approach known as “Reflective Structured Dialogue”.
In this episode, Bob describes the process in detail with some examples of an application in the setting of a polarized church congregation, as well as the “Family Dinner Project” and some other initiatives.
Bob shares that a “seed planted in him” to do this work was being raised by a single father which marked him as different: His teachers treated him differently, friends were not allowed to come over to his house because there was no woman present. His father did everything, the ironing the dishes which left Bob often feeling ostracized. The experience shaped his ideas about what it means to be a man and what it means to be outside the mainstream.
Bob always engaged in difference but did so more “by the seat of his pants” until he encountered the PCP. In his first PCP dialogue, an exchange with someone with polar opposite views on abortion left him amazingly uplifted and connected even though the two deeply disagreed.
Bob tells the story of a church congregation that was deciding whether or not to be welcoming to openly LGBTQ people. Many people had left the congregation because of the issue but came back for the dialogue process. As a result, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to be openly accepting of LGBTQ members. The people who left re-joined because, as Bob says, they felt heard.
Bob explains, some conflicts can’t be resolved but you can have good conversations if you create the right “container.” He has come to realize that what’s most important is the relationship and how people come together, not whether the issue is resolved, especially in highly contentious issues where people are not likely to ultimately see eye to eye.
As evidence of the profound nature of the PCP work, the members of the Leaders Dialogue continue to speak in pro-life, pro-choice pairs to tell people the value of talking across the divide. Interestingly, all of them will say that they not only did not change their perspectives as a result of the dialogue, but more fully embraced them. But they also will say that they have grown to respect and love each other through the process and that those strong feelings for each other have kept them together.
Please tune in here, to get some great insights into some best methods to bridge the divide.
Thanks for reading this, thanks for listening,
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Elizabeth Rabia Roberts: Bearing Witness
Dear Subscribers,
I just came back from my biannual trip delivering a seminar in international negotiations to NASA (the U.S. space agency) and their international space partners. The two basic strategies in negotiation are competitive and collaborative and, for the most part in this workshop, I recommend the latter. Where people need to build strong relationships (like they do on joint projects in space), and especially in an intercultural environment where misunderstandings can happen quickly, it’s my experience, and the research bears it out, that collaboration works best.
From years of working with intercultural groups, and tens of thousands of people around the world, I have an insight that feels super relevant today. I am confident that if you give me a diverse group to work with, I can create either polarized intercultural conflict, or group harmony, by fostering competition or collaboration. For instance, I can run a competitive game like Prisoner's Dilemma which will predictably create mistrust and anger and watch the group break down along identity lines. In contrast, I can build a climate of trust and understanding and see people come together in spite of identity-group differences. I think of this often now as I watch the climate Trump has created and the increase in anti-semitism, anti-muslim, anti-gay, anti-women, anti, anti. . .
Another insight (that’s certainly not my own) but that feels super relevant and that I find myself repeating is that "race" is an illusion: Biologically-speaking, there is no such thing. Like birds, human beings are one species, just different colors. I remember making this point when I was working in South Sudan with folks who were very dark skinned. To one participant, William, I said, I may have more in common with you genetically-speaking than I do with my white neighbor at home. I remember the stunned look on participant faces as the idea registered. This fact needs to be more widely understood if we are to stop making color such a big and destructive deal. Please check out the excellent and well-researched documentary, "Race: the Power of an Illusion" for more on this topic.
So, on to the current episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast. Elizabeth Rabia Roberts, Ed.D, is an internationally known citizen activist and women’s advocate. She is MaShieka—spiritual guide and teacher—in the International Sufi Way, and a lifelong student and teacher in nondual Buddhism. She has spent nearly 50 years working as a change agent for environmental and social justice and the past 26 years working in 17 countries using “Bearing Witness” as a model for transformative action. Bearing Witness is a process that has grown out of the teachings and inspiration of many people (Bernie Glassman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Witness for Peace, and Elias Amidon, to name a few). It has deep spiritual roots—but is being newly adapted to improve the effectiveness of working with transformative change. Rabia has slept in tents, bamboo huts, ashrams, church basements, hotels, the occasional palace, and the guest rooms of friends around the world. She describes her work as an exercise of happiness and optimism – something that you can feel palpably when talking to Rabia.
In this episode, Rabia shares a specific story of Bearing Witness, in a multi-party conflict playing out in the national park system between native people, environmental activists, loggers the police and others in the then Burma where she spent many years with her husband Elias Avidon.
About the process of Bearing Witness, Rabia says, “No one person, organization, or political party holds a monopoly on what will make a healthy future for us all—either at the planetary or community level. Perhaps nothing is more important today than crossing the boundaries that seem to separate us and learn to think like an interconnected system. . . Our challenge is to loosen our attachment to our personal or group agendas so that we can begin to sense what is trying to emerge from the larger whole. . .. This does not mean we excuse greed or need to capitulate on what is true—i.e. pretend that a river is not polluted when it clearly is—but we must continue to dialogue. Future leaders will be those who have the collaborative skills and spiritual maturity to bear witness to the totality of what is.”
Rabia describes the principles of Bearing Witness as “appear(ing) quite simple—you may have heard them before from a spiritual teacher, or in your church—but like most important things in life (i.e., marriage, child rearing, committing to a spiritual path), they are not easy. Whether you work in peace building, education, community development, corporate training, or simply want to improve your family dynamics, the process of bearing witness can be helpful.
- Encounter the other; show up; take the plunge
- Ask caring questions that open the heart of the “other”
- Practice the art of Deep Listening, without judgment
- Understand techniques for setting aside one’s own beliefs and attitudes
- Learn to guide meetings without driving one’s own agenda
- Learn the difference between fixing, helping, and serving
- See ways to bring forth the greater whole that is emerging
- Perceive what is ‘yours’ to do, and when action is ready to emerge
In 1999 Rabia and her husband, sold their home and undertook a deliberate period of homelessness as part of an international pilgrimage of direct service and teaching. In 2002, while working with a peace group in Iraq, Rabia was elected the first American delegate to the Global Non-Violent Peaceforce. Since then she has worked organizing and teaching active non-violence in Burma, Indonesia, the tribal lands of Southeast Asia, Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Brazil, Afghanistan, Pakistan and most recently Standing Rock.
Just hearing Rabia’s voice makes me smile. Please tune in here. You will not be disappointed. And, as always, please ask your friends to subscribe to this blog.
Some exciting news at The Peacebuilding Podcast. I have two new interns – Kishawn Kevin Gajadhar, a U.S. Army Iraq veteran and graduate student at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University and Mary Grace Donahue. I am super grateful to have both of them on board.
Thanks for reading this, thanks for listening.
I send you my warm regards,
Susan
Sandra Janoff: Future Search - Getting the Whole System in the Room to Build a Common Ground Agenda
Dear Subscribers,
In the last week, increased violence and tension seems ubiquitous, ignited by the presence of Donald Trump. Things are heating up between the United States and Iran, the U.S. and China, Australia, Mexico, etc. There are anarchists organizing in my country for violent action against the new president.
It's been hard to find my voice in the midst of the chaos. What exactly do I want to say? How can I talk about building common ground when I also want to protest against Trump? Where does The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide fit? Many listeners and friends have reassured me that the niche of this podcast is perhaps more important now than ever. We need to "bridge the divide", we need to build common ground, we need dialogue and "activism of the skin" as one friend put it. And we need to create new structures and ways of doing things -- not the same polarized conversations.
I know I regularly repeat the quotes that capture the essence of the niche I am trying to fill but here they are again: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." (Management Consultant, Pete Drucker). "Don't fight against the existing reality. Create a new reality that makes the existing reality obsolete." (Systems Theorist, Buckminster Fuller). And a new one I just came across, "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." (Journalist Scoop Nisker).
I was heartened the other day when a listener reached out to me. She is in college, about to graduate, and has listened to every episode of the podcast. She is bright, articulate and looking for inspiration and guidance on how to create a "new story" on the planet. I have invited her to do a summary episode of what she has learned from the podcast. I am excited! I also loved hearing from a listener in Afghanistan who was inspired by Episode 20, Elvira Maria Restrepo, A Web App for Building Peace in Colombia.
So, let me turn to the latest guest on the show. Sandra Janoff is really in a class by herself. No one that I know of has so systematically created a design for building common ground in a multi-stakeholder group than Sandra and her now retired partner, Marv Weisbord.
The Future Search process does not portend to be a conflict resolution tool, or a peacebuilding one for that matter, but it is both nonetheless.
In this episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide, Sandra talks about the Future Search process and tells stories about its application in a community of indigenous Hawaiins, for the Children of Southern Sudan and more.
Sandra co-developed the Future Search methodology which is a non-traditional way of doing strategic planning because it brings stakeholders together in a setting where there is a great deal of dialogue, and the opportunity to discover a shared vision and action agenda together.
Janoff also directs the Future Search Network where Future Search principles are applied in communities around the world for whatever people can afford. The Future Search principles include:
- Getting the whole system in the room
- Looking at “the whole elephant” together
- Focusing on the future and common ground as opposed to conflicts and problems, and
- Allowing the group to take responsibility.
As Janoff says, her focus has always been on structure change, not behavior change. She and Marv are probably some of the first to make this important point to systems change – that getting the structures, conditions, principles right for whatever group you are working with – whether a team, family, department or whole system, is the best way to create sustainable change.
Sandra and her partner Marv have created an important legacy about how common ground can be built in spite of polarization. Both are Lifetime Achievement Award winners from the Organization Development Network. Many of the Future Searches they themselves have run around the world, or inspired, continue to make positive ripples sometimes decades after the meeting itself was convened.
As I always invite on The Peacebuilding Podcast, Sandra shares some of the “seeds” that were planted in her that inspired the work she does today -- a family setting where she often had to play the role of informal mediator. She also talks about some of her early professional years that led to her insights about the need for structural change.
This episode is replete with insight and quotable moments. To name a few that are especially relevant for these times:
“In so many places, people are building communities that are sustainable. Under the right conditions, people can build a bright future.”
“We are living under conditions of non-stop change and increasing diversity. So we must do something different – we can’t repeat old patterns and believe that things will change. People only change if they do something they haven’t done before.”
“We need new conversations and new ways of coming together.”
“When we make the circle bigger, things get better. “
Tune in now to this bright, wise soul and learn some important ways and ideas to take this planet higher.
Listen here.
Warmly,
Susan
Thomas Hill: Peacebuilding in Iraq and Creating New York University's Peacebuilding Program
Dear Subscribers,
How do you create the conditions for peacefulness in a place like Iraq that has been in such intense, destructive conflict for so long? How do you use yourself as an outsider to support people on the ground who wish to create a different kind of future for their children? And how do you go about setting up academic programs, in war-torn countries or peaceful ones, that rigorously train students in the best methods for creating the conditions for peacefulness?
Thomas Hill speaks to all of these questions on this episode of The Peacebuilding Podcast: Bridging the Divide. With his mellifluous voice (that this podcaster believes should be put to use on radio), Tom talks about his near singular focus on Iraq over 16 years and 35 trips.
Tom, aka Dr. Hill, is a clinical associate professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, where he is the Director of the Initiative for Peacebuilding through Education. He is a peacebuilding practitioner, researcher and has developed a series of inter-related projects focused on increasing levels of peacefulness in Iraq.
Tom talks about his journey into the peacebuilding field through journalism as well as his creation of NYU’s Peacebuilding concentration. He reflects on the changing perceptions about the Peacebuilding field from those who still think it’s a 1960’s holdout, to those who now accept it as becoming mainstream e.g. the U.S. State Department. He describes why students come to the NYU program, what they learn, and what they do when they leave.
Most importantly, Tom talks in great detail about the his work in Iraq over the last 16 years and how he and Iraqi partners have gradually created academic but activist conflict resolution centers that are ground zero for those who are done with the destruction around them, and 100% committed to finding a different path.
With poignant clarity, he shares his first moments in Iraq in 2003, enjoying beautiful food and wonderful Iraqi hospitality in a home with a kalashnikov leaning against every window, dark moments over the years turning into brighter ones, the serendipity of the worst events like ISIL taking over Mosul being the impetus for the University of Mosul to consider development of a program in peace studies.
In keeping with the theme of those interviewed on The Peacebuilding Podcast, Tom talks about the structural or systemic changes that are necessary, in Iraq, the United States and elsewhere, for peacefulness to really take hold. He gives listeners his top three insights and learnings from the work in Iraq, his favorite book on building peace, and the tool or technique from Bill Ury that he has found most useful overall.
If you are someone who is tired of our public conversation that is dominated by destructive, violent conflict and are thinking about how peace really can be built, listen to this creative, upbeat voice and become inspired about lessons you can immediately put to work!
Stream or download this episode here. Please tell your friends to subscribe to this blog and leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world. We have some great new content coming up, so please stay tuned. . .
Warmly,
Susan
Elvira Maria Restrepo: A Web App for Building Peace in Colombia
Dear Subscribers,
Are there ways to use technology to build peace? How much is misinformation from social media impacting an electorates’ thinking about what they want? Is it possible to create an online process of deliberative democracy to allow citizens to freely express their views and arrive at outcomes that are more closely aligned with fact and the public good? Can you bring people together online in conversation from opposite ends of the political spectrum to have constructive dialogue about issues that affect everyone?
In this episode, I interview Elvira Maria Restrepo, University of Miami Professor and special advisor to President Santos on the peace building process in Colombia. Elvira talks about her personal journey and the influence on her of growing up in a country that has been at war for her entire lifetime, from the period of La Violencia, through the more recent conflicts between the government, the paramilitaries and the FARC, to the historic signing of a peace accord this last year.
She talks about how the Colombian experience has formed her understanding of the need for social inclusion and justice as the underpinnings of building peace. She then goes into describing a super interesting experiment that she is spearheading to use a WebApp for citizen engagement around the peace process in Colombia. She and her team have been studying the impact of social media on citizen awareness and social division. Misinformation generated from social media, especially Facebook, has had a huge impact on the outcomes of the peace referendum in Colombia as with Brexit, the Trump election in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The App is an attempt to engage Colombians in a non-partisan debate to create a more informed citizenry and build common ground around the peace process, which is a hugely polarized topic. The App is based on the theory of deliberative democracy that has been applied in many parts of Europe and North America around many types of social issues. However, it is the first time an App of its sort has been created and applied to a conflict situation such as this.
In spite of the fact that you can’t reach many parts of Colombia by road, more than 50 % of Colombians have access to the internet and 80% of those go on line via Facebook. The way the App works is “players” are grouped in diverse pods of 5 who think differently from each other on an issue. The idea is that through deliberation, the group will not necessarily reach consensus but rather the best conclusion for all (i.e. the public good) and greater understanding of different perspectives. So far, the testing with 100 individuals has shown an important trend to depolarize the extreme positions which is the expected outcome of deliberation. Topics can include land, system of justice for ex-combatants, tax issues, gender relations and can bring together in conversations diverse perspectives such as bankers and house cleaners.
The link to the App can be accessed here if you are interested in participating and can speak Spanish. Elvira welcomes all feedback as the technology is tested.
This episode is sure to engage your thinking about creative ways to bring people together across the divides of difference. And, of course, the possibilities for scaling in other contexts around the world are endless.
Stream or download this episode here, and please tell your friends to subscribe to this blog.
Hope everyone is getting off to a good start for the New Year.
Warmly,
Susan
Susan Coleman: Working with Senior Women’s Leadership Teams to Build Peace in Afghanistan
Dear Subscribers,
In the last few days, in the midst of holiday gatherings and conversation, I have learned of two super bright 20-somethings who have struggled with trauma. It appears that one of them just took her own life. The other struggles daily, walking the tightrope between manifesting his tremendous talent, or completely self-destructing. Both situations were induced by a complicated blend of domestic, gender-based abuse, and global identity-group power struggles about which groups are worthy of support and protection.
Young people are inheriting such a complicated world. There is climate change, of course. And then, I believe, there are the vestiges of a dying world order of patriarchy and authoritarianism. Many health practitioners often comment on a phenomenon they call a “healing crisis” – the disease gets fiercer and stronger before it dies out. I think that may be what’s happening here in the United States with the upset election of Donald Trump and similar victories around the planet -- some kind of throw-back wish for a simpler time, and protection from an idealized benign authority.
I have always loved the work of Rianne Eisler and it seems so fitting now. Eisler, an anthropologist, wrote in The Chalice and the Blade (1987), that the history of our planet can be divided into models of domination or partnership, with 99% of human history characterized by the latter. Bill Ury, from the Harvard Program on Negotiation, echoed her work in Getting to Peace – contrasting the strong evidence that for 2,500,000 years of human life on the planet we lived in peaceful coexistence, with only the last 10,000 years marked by coercion and destructive conflict. Ury also went on to notice the current long-term trend of the information age pushing out the industrial, and shifting the prevailing winds towards greater partnership and collaboration.
As you know, the outlook of The Peacebuilding Podcast is basically optimistic. As a global village, we may take one step forward and two steps back but there is so much going on in the world now that is truly life-enhancing and transformative. This is the work that this Podcast features, the spirit of which is so well captured in systems thinker and designer, Buckminster Fuller's quote:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
The most recent episode on The Peacebuilding Podcast is actually a cross-post from the Team Coaching Zone Podcast, where my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Krister Lowe, interviews me about my professional journey and recent work with Senior Women’s Leadership Teams in Afghanistan. Listen to this episode here. I’m proud of the episode both because of the work itself, a highlight of 2016, but also because I have colleagues like Krister who continue to inspire and expand my repertoire of what’s possible.
So while you are cooking, driving, riding a train or just sitting in your home, take a listen to our conversation. I think you will enjoy it. To whet your appetite, here is a summary:
Is empowering women, especially in conflict-ridden societies a peacebuilding initiative? Can developing collective leadership among women, especially at senior levels in governments, be an important way to move towards a more peaceful and collaborative world? Coleman believes the answer to these questions is yes and that women’s leadership and empowerment is perhaps one of the most important peacebuilding initiatives we can undertake on the planet today. In this cross-post from the Team Coaching Zone Podcast, Dr. Krister Lowe interviews Coleman about her professional journey through the fields of commercial litigation to discovering the world of integrative negotiation at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard, to pioneering work in the field of intercultural negotiation and conflict resolution training at the United Nations and Columbia University, to her present work as global coach, mediator, public speaker and Host of this Podcast. Coleman shares details of her recent experience working with the most senior women in the Afghan government, a project sponsored by the Office of the First Lady of Afghanistan and UN Women Afghanistan. She describes the difficulties of working in a war zone, the powerful inspiration of the Afghan women with whom she worked, as well as the intervention design and program. Coleman’s professional focus includes women’s leadership development, coaching and mediation of senior teams, large group facilitation and collaborative negotiation skill development. The Afghanistan work blended all of these as is elaborated upon in this podcast.
The line-up of episodes for the New Year is as follows:
- Elvira Maria Restrepo -- Special Advisor to President Santos and the Peace Process in Colombia. Restrepo talks about a web app they are experimenting with to build peace in Colombia.
- Michael Gillenwater – A leading expert on climate change who had a front row seat at the negotiations in Paris where 195 countries came together to reach a landmark accord.
- Tom Hill – Clinical Associate Professor at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University who talks about his seminal peacebuilding work in Iraq.
- Sandra Janoff – Creator of Future Search, one of the most sophisticated and celebrated processes to build common ground in complex systems.
- Cat Guthrie – Founder, Harmony and Co, which uses music and harmony to bring conflicting groups together.
So stay tuned. Please tell your friends and ask them to subscribe (it’s free) to The Peacebuiding Podcast. The more subscribers the more impact this podcast can have.
I hope 2016 is coming to a peaceful end for you. I am practicing gratitude for both my tremendous blessings as well and the challenges I face that that keep helping me grow.
“See you” in 2017,
Peace,
Susan
Jim Zimmerman, NASA: Space Exploration – A Powerful Symbol of Global Cooperation
Dear Subscribers,
I have been working for the United States' space agency, "NASA" for about 15 years delivering a seminar two times a year in international/intercultural negotiations.
The program has been part of their International Project Management Training Program for people from the U.S. and other space-faring countries who collaborate in space.
The imagery of the International Space Station, circling 250 miles above the earth’s surface, is a beautiful metaphor for what we can create when we tap into the exponential potential of cooperation across the divides of culture and difference. Similarly, I have been profoundly moved by the photos of our planet coming from space missions -- the first from the Apollo mission in 1968, and now from Voyager -- of the tiny, tiny blue dot that floats in the middle of a vast morass of nothingness. Especially when facilitating difficult conversations, I often show this image to clients because I think it helps keep things in perspective.
In this episode, I interview James Zimmerman (“Jim”), a retired National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) official, who describes space exploration as a case study for international cooperation. Jim recounts the history of space exploration as a tale of competition evolving to cooperation.
He talks about his personal journey and how he came to work in the field of international relations, then with NASA and his tenure as President of the International Astronautical Federation (the “IAF”), an international organization based in Paris whose members include space agencies, companies and professional societies.
Jim describes how space exploration is a relatively new phenomena which began in the 1950’s during the Cold War and the competition between the then Soviet Union and the United States. The seeds that nurtured space activities in that era were, as he says, “not collaborative at all, they were political, competitive and focusing on which political system could produce the best types of results.” Over the years the paradigm has shifted, from nationalism and competition, to an environment where scientists and engineers realize that collaboration is not just an option, but the best way forward given the limitations of financial and human resources. And, importantly, scientists have discovered how much value collaboration can create in spite of the fact that the technologies they are using can be militarily restricted.
Jim tells some wonderful stories about the important lessons he learned about intercultural negotiations and the need for respecting people from other parts of the world, cultural differences, listening and understanding different perspectives. How do you move forward when your partners are Russian, Japanese, European, Chinese, Indian, South American and you must build consensus?
Jim’s final reflections are about how space is a unique place to invest in a peaceful future. For the relatively small cost we pay in each of our countries, space exploration brings out the best in humanity. This sentiment is echoed by the Head of NASA, Charlie Bolden, who was the keynote speaker at this year's Alliance for Peacebuilding conference and you can read his speech here.
Stream or download this episode here. Please email me or leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.
Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again.
Susan
p.s. My apologies for mis-pronouncing Carl Sagan’s name.
Kamal Mouzawak: Making Food Not War in Lebanon
Dear Subscribers,
I have just returned back from Dushanbe, Tajikistan where I was working with senior women in the Afghan government. They are an inspiring group! I will tell you more about this project when it has come to a close and more about their mission, to the extent that I can. I hope to interview a few of them so you can hear from them directly. Also, one of my colleagues on this project, Charles Crawford, was the former British Ambassador to Bosnia immediately following the Dayton peace accords. He has some very interesting stories to tell about what worked and didn't in terms of efforts to build common ground in a highly complex, multi-ethnic environment -- at least from a diplomatic point of view -- and will be telling those tales in an upcoming episode. The next podcast episode will feature James Zimmerman from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States describing how international collaborations in space have become an important metaphor for building peace on the planet. So stay tuned.
In this episode, I interview Kamal Mouzawak, an Arab world social innovator whose business card says it all -- “Make Food, Not War”.
Kamal created the first farmer’s market in Beirut, Soukeltayeb.com, which means "the market of good". Because he grew up in the middle of the Lebanese civil war, Kamal knows first hand about what kinds of actions can build peace.
I met Kamal sometime in the Spring of 2016 at the Glynwood Center, which supports food and agriculture throughout the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States.
Kamal and his staff served an amazing meal of goat, hummus, greens, yogurts and more while talking about his work of bringing people together across huge divides in Lebanon of different cultures and religions. As he has said, “in a country as divided as Lebanon, nothing can bring people together as much as the land and food.”
In the midst of divisive political tensions still prevalent after the Lebanese civil war (1975 to 1990) and continuing conflict between Lebanon and Israel, Kamal began Souk el-Tayeb. Souk el-Tayeb is the first inexpensive organic food market in Beirut, but more importantly, it serves as a platform for the people of Lebanon to forge a unified Lebanese heritage and identity based on their shared cuisine. A place where regardless of the religion or ethnic heritage—Druze, Shiite, Sunni, Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Jew—the diverse peoples of Lebanon are united around a food experience.
Lebanon’s tumultuous history of diversity and conflict has resulted in low agricultural production, massive internal migration, inadequate agriculture policies, and ethnic divisions. For each of these problems, Kamal’s approach is part of a solution. Branching from Souk el-Tayeb, Kamal has begun a farmer visit and exchange program, a cultural tourism program, a producer restaurant, educational programming for youth, and inclusive national festivals to promote reconciliation in Lebanon. While Souk el-Tayeb is based in Beirut, due to Lebanon’s compact size, farmers from the Niha Mountains to costal Saida can join together at weekly farmer’s markets. Additional programs branching from the market, such as the farmer’s exchange program, also connect farmers from across Lebanon in their own homes, and transnationally with investor networks in London, Galway, Amsterdam, New York, and Latakia. Based on the marked success of Souk el-Tayeb in Beirut, and the impact of its related initiatives in other parts of Lebanon, Kamal is working to introduce producers’ restaurants in Dubai and farmers’ platforms in Saudi Arabia. Using cuisine traditions and customs as a unifying social and cultural catalyst while also empowering and generating income to small-scale farmers and local communities—through food, Kamal is scaling peace in the Middle East.
Stream or download this episode here. Please email me or leave your comments wherever you may wander in the social media world.
Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again.
Susan
David Gage: Mediating and Preventing Partnership and Closely-Held Business Disputes
Dear Subscribers,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an episode, but I have a strong line-up of content coming your way so, please stay tuned. During my break, without my doing a thing, The Peacebuilding Podcast: Strategies to Build Common Ground subscriber list has grown quite significantly. I get excited by the viral nature of the internet and the possibility of creating a global repository of the best ideas on how to facilitate planetary cooperation, in spite of large differences of income and worldview. I do believe our collective children and grandchildren need this information.
Yesterday, I did a pre-interview of Michael Gillenwater, a climate change specialist who had a front row seat during the Paris climate change negotiations. He told me that the bombing in Paris right at that time seemed a motivating factor in bringing 195 countries together. It does seem that everywhere we turn there is evidence that planetary ecosystems are getting more volatile -- and with them us humans. Michael has been one of the saints out there creating the know-how of how to intelligently deal with climate change so that when things do get really bad and the topic goes to the top of the planetary agenda, there will be a “scaffold” of knowledge to take intelligent action. I have a similar hope for these podcast interviews – that they will be a useful resource as pressure grows for all of us to figure out how to live together. As the United States’ President Obama said in a recent speech, “we need to fight for common ground no matter how elusive that might be.”
In this episode, we will explore a very practical application of building common ground – partnership and small business mediation. In the 1980’s, mediation took the Western world by storm. Many people, including myself, decided to dedicate their professional aspirations to “alternative dispute resolution.” The field has grown tremendously since that time but, as is true of all social change movements, so has huge resistance to it. This has come both from those who profit or prefer adversarial dispute processes – political impasse, litigation, polarization, destructive conflict – and from the limitations of our evolution and desire to create a more peaceful planet. Nonetheless, I am fundamentally an optimist and believe we will headed in the right direction. Among the many quotable statements from the Mahatma (Gandhi) this one comes to mind:
"When I Despair, I remember all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always."
So, in this episode, I interview David Gage who is both a dear friend and one of my oldest colleagues. I have worked with David for many years doing partnership and family business mediation as well as facilitating partnership charters – which David describes in this podcast. While a lot of mediation has turned into what I call “settlement conferencing”, just simply shuttling between the parties to get them to agree to a compromise position, partnerships and small businesses are a place where there are real relationships, high interdependence and often a greater desire to repair or part well. Like some divorcing couples they can be an excellent place to practice true mediation where exploring the underlying interests of the parties as well as other techniques can really be applied.
David Gage, is a clinical psychologist, business mediator, entrepreneur and author. Twenty-five years ago, he founded what is still one of the only multidisciplinary mediation firms in the country that specializes in resolving conflicts among co-owners of businesses. Family and non-family closely held businesses make up the vast majority of the businesses globally, but until David wrote his book on partners, there was nothing written on the whole range of discussions, negotiations and agreements people need to have in order to lower the risks inherent in having partners. From resolving partner conflicts, David moved into conflict prevention with the publication of his book, The Partnership Charter: How To Start Out Right with Your New Business Partnership (or Fix the One You’re In). The Partnership Charter Workbook, based on the book, helps potential and existing partners plan their partnerships thoroughly, improve collaboration and reduce the risk of conflict.
In this episode, David describes how and why he founded his firm, gives some useful background on closely-held companies, and explains why mediation is such a perfect approach to resolve partner disputes. He also describes the Partnership Charter process, a kind of “collaborative pre-nup” for co-owners. With over two decades of resolving and preventing business partner disputes, David may be the most knowledgeable person on the planet on how to reduce conflict and promote collaboration in this niche population that controls so much of our global economic activity. If you are a mediator or someone who works in a co-owned business, this will be 45 minutes very well spent. Listen to the episode here.
As always, thanks for your support and following of the podcast. Upcoming episodes include: Kamal Mouzawak who started the first farmers market in Beirut, Lebanon and has been using food to bring groups together throughout a country that was so polarized with civil war, Jim Zimmerman from the US space agency NASA who will talk about the history of space exploration and how it has moved from a competitive model to one now of global cooperation, Michael Gillenwater about the Paris climate change negotiations, Sandra Janoff, one of the founders of the Future Search Network and one of the most intelligent innovators about strategies to build common ground, and many others.
I do believe that what we focus on grows. Hopefully these podcasts can contribute to imagining what is possible.
Onward,
Susan
Greetings from South Sudan
Dear Subscribers,
Greetings from South Sudan. I am here working with UNMISS, the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan. It’s a privilege to be here, to be part of and experience the UN’s substantial peacekeeping efforts, and always so interesting to see the world from its many different perspectives.
I am currently in Torit, S Sudan, a more remote part of the country, living on a UN compound surrounded by soldiers and barbed wire. I feel pretty safe but kind of “in jail” as I am living in a container with no windows and can’t leave the compound without real precaution. Beyond the barbed wire, I am looking at beautiful mountains which the hiker/explorer in me would like to check out but can’t. I am awed by both the military and civilian personnel who are here for months, sometimes years at a time, eating the same diet of potatoes, rice, maize, collards, chicken, goat, working hard and living with a minimal amount of the regular pleasures that I take for granted.
I have been to S Sudan two times previously (in 2012 and 2103) as well as having worked with UNMISS in Uganda in 2014. With the perspective of time, it’s interesting to witness the newest country on earth finding it’s footing. Things are very unstable here. People are desperately poor and the government still polarized around tribal lines. I personally see some signs of a few infrastructure improvements: I now have a real visa, whereas before I was just given a letter; my US cell carrier was able to provide me coverage, I have pretty reliable internet and now the aircraft in Juba (the capital) are not all UN, but mostly commercial carriers.
It’s been really moving to get to know people here, groundzero for the beginnings of humanity. So many have been profoundly affected by war. They have been soldiers, they have lost loved ones, they have seen the unspeakable. The country is still flooded with small and large arms and, as one man said, nothing will change until that gets cleaned up. As is my way, I am also closely tracking the situation of women, which seems really tough. Just among the people I am working with, there are so many bright women, and I see them struggle to be heard and seen as equal valuable contributors. A young, very beautiful Dinka woman I have come to know stands out. She is the first of four wives. She and her husband didn’t conceive and so he married again. When that couple didn’t conceive, he married again, etc. Apparently, it was unthinkable to consider that it might be he that has the infertility issue. The woman is shamed at not having conceived and burdened by supporting all of the wives as she and her husband are the only two breadwinners. I am aware of both her desire to empower herself and the tremendous hurdles she faces to do so.
The topic of race is also very close to the surface. While race certainly plays out differently in Africa than my country, I have heard so many deep feelings about color expressed. There is still so much misinformation. With one group I was working with, I noticed some real light-bulbs going off when I made the statement that, at a genetic level, I may be more similar to the S Sudanese person I was talking to than to a white neighbor at home. Race is such an illusion and yet we humans have made it so important – and so destructive.
My main motivation in writing this post is to update you on the progress of the Podcast. I will write you a short update here and then release a summary podcast when I return from Africa. Thank you all so much for your support, comments, and suggestions. They really mean a lot. They are both helping in improving the podcast, and motivating me to continue.
I hit an obstacle in the last couple of months that slowed my progress. For those of you who listened to my introductory episode, you know that I launched with the support of “the collaboratory” – a team of four of us working as a “team for teams”. So much of the consulting work I and my partners do is helping teams and groups maximize the collaborative potential of people and systems whether it be through coaching, mediation or facilitation. The purpose of the Collaboratory was to “walk our talk” and work in a highly interdependent way in terms of money and goals. Nonetheless, while we were humming along for a period, we hit an impasse triggered by the strain of pooling money and finding it difficult to fully align around long term vision. As a result, we sort of “broke up”.
Suddenly feeling much more on my own with this project, I needed some time to reflect on whether I could afford the effort. The Peacebuilding Podcast is a large undertaking for me and one that I do without compensation (at least of the financial variety). After thinking it over, I’m definitely committed to continue, at least with Season 2, which I am super excited about.
What I am loving about the podcast, is that it’s an amazing way to connect and engage with people. Here in Torit, a young military peacekeeper from Yemen has just subscribed to this blog with great enthusiasm and tells me that he and his people need this information much more than all the fighting that has been going on for decades in Yemen. Similarly, it was great to be able to provide the resource of Episode No. 4 on Peacebuilding Through Education in Bosnia with Naghmeh Sobhani to a very eloquent S Sudanese man who is interested in bringing conflict resolution skills into the schools here.
What is difficult for me about the podcast are the psychic hurdles -- about the effort, exposure, and money. I will admit to an inner narrative that flip-flops from great excitement - to a crisis of confidence so rampant among women on our planet these days. In the latter moments, I say to myself “silly girl” -- war and peace are men’s business. In the more confident moments, I hear the whispers of the rising divine feminine that says, this is the time to step into my leadership. This is the time for women’s voices to speak clearly on this issue in order to best care for ourselves and our children. Men and women need women to lead.
So, here is a taste of the upcoming line-up of interviews that I am planning for Season 2 of the podcast. I hope you find them as compelling as I do.
- an organization development master who worked to build common ground among member states of the African Union
- a negotiator on the front-lines of recent climate change negotiations in Paris
- a colleague whose business specializes in mediation and preventative mediation in the field of closely held partnerships – the largest segment of both the U.S. and global economies
- a couple who work in conflict zones to bear witness as the third side
- an organization development consultant who is bringing state-of-the-art techniques to shift to a high-team, high collaborative environment
- a family therapist who uses some of the most innovative psychotherapeutic techniques to address the impact of trauma on recycling conflict
- a NASA (United States Space Agency) staff member who has spent a career creating international cooperation in space
- a Lebanese chef who grew up in the midst of the civil war there and now uses food to build intergroup harmony
- an academic who tracks the role of money in building peace and waging war
- large group process intervenors who do so much to build common ground in complex systems
- a senior diplomatic mediator working in Asia
- a representative of Mediator’s Beyond Borders
- the developer of one of the first academic programs in Peacebuilding
I am now on Twitter with the twitter handle @MediatorCoach so please follow if you like. I love getting Tweets’ back such as this recent one from a woman in Prague:
“I’ve been listening non-stop to The Peacebuilding Podcast. So many inspirational people and stories!”
I also have heard that a number of people were so inspired by Mel Duncan that they are considering joining Non-Violent Peace Force. I’ll keep you posted.
That’s all for now. You will hear from me soon and I look forward to it. Please encourage people to subscribe to these blog posts.
Warmly,
Susan
Andrea Bartoli: "Seek What Unites, Not What Divides." Lessons from Mozambique and Elsewhere
Dear Subscribers,
My relationship with a very important colleague recently hit the rocks. Her description -- "it was rupturing." Its been both my personal and professional experience that no matter how much I develop myself -- as a coach, mediator, colleague, friend, I still hit challenging growth points with the people in my life. In this moment, I luckily had Andrea Bartoli's inspiration front and center in my mind as I reached out to her -- "seek what unites, not what divides. No matter how difficult a situation may seem, believe that peace is possible."
So my guest this episode is Dr. Andrea Bartoli, someone who takes important professional risks to get good work done. Dr. Bartoli is currently Dean at Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and International Relations and an incredibly brave, intelligent and collaborative soul. He has been part of peacemaking initiatives in Mozambique, Guatemala, Algeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma/Myanmar, East Timor, Colombia, and has been an advocate of innovative processes to build common ground in the university systems in which he has spent most of his professional career.
In this podcast, he tells the story of his contribution in Mozambique to bring about the end of a 16-year civil war. This work, he says, was the most important and formative of his long career in the field of peacemaking. Instrumental to the success of the endeavor was a strong belief that, in spite of the huge challenges, peace was possible. As Dr. Bartoli says:
“Peace is always possible. This must be repeated over and over in situations where you do not see the possibility of peace. . .If peace was possible in Mozambique, then it is possible in Syria, Afghanistan, it is possible everywhere.”
The story of Mozambique started simply – giving assistance to just one friend. That friend, in turn was connected to expanding systems of people, ultimately to an entire country and then, by way of example, to the world. Dr. Bartoli reflects how “each of us has a daily decision to make regarding how we use ourselves to evolve systems to a more harmonious and constructive place.” And, he says:
“I think that the human spirit is much stronger than war, much stronger than violence. I think that violence and war are mistakes, collective mistakes, of not applying yourself to the discipline of seeking what unites and not what divides.”
Toward the end of the interview, Dr Bartoli reflects on the interrelationship between peacemaking among international actors and the similar processes that are required in the contexts of large complex systems such as universities. He also shares with listeners his thoughts on what is making him most hopeful.
Listen to this podcast stream or download it here. If you are enjoying this podcast, please encourage your friends to subscribe.
Cheers for now,
Susan
p.s. My colleague and I have moved beyond our precipice and are now in a much better place.
Aldo Civico: Working in the Fire
Dear Subscribers,
I have been traveling recently, first to Germany and then to hog country in North Carolina in the U.S.
In Germany, I was delivering a negotiation skills program to the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. The program was held in a castle on the Rhine in Bonn, in the same room where the Marshall Plan documents were signed after WWII. I know I am not alone in still feeling the presence of WWII so palpably in Germany. In North Carolina, I was mediating a partnership dispute between two hog farming families. As a northerner, being in the rural South, I also notice so many signposts of the Civil War 150 years later. War leaves such a mark!. I, and I know many others, are very much wondering whether we might be able to create a different reality moving forward. What's interesting to me about working with different types of groups -- hog farmers, UN staff -- is the similarities, in the end, of human beings trying to work through difference in constructive ways.
In this episode, I interview Aldo Civico, cease-fire negotiator, peacebuilder and, in the words of George Mitchell, “one of the most innovative leaders in the field of conflict resolution. Aldo talks about how his Austrian grandfather, a resistance fighter against Hitler during WWII, planted the seeds in him to do this work – a man who lived for something bigger than himself. He recounts his professional journey of being inspired by life coach Tony Robbins particularly Robbins’ work with a live conflict on 9/11 using tools such as performance psychology, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), etc. In that experience, Aldo realized that the “Getting to Yes” and conflict resolution frameworks could be radically deepened to create lasting shifts for his clients by incorporating more of these kinds of tools.
Aldo shares with humility one of his early stories of traveling to a warzone in Colombia with the mind-set of “expert” from New York and realizing that he had to throw away all of his notes, re-connect to his purpose of service and listen deeply to the group he was working with. His tale is a great one of adapting quickly to the power of storytelling and simply staying with participants -- with deep listening, no agenda or manipulation --to allow the power of story to unfold. (As I was reviewing this episode for release, I was struck by how Aldo's comments about deep listening very much parallel the tremendous skill I witnessed in my co-mediator, David Gage, as he stayed with a distraught disputant in North Carolina.)
Aldo shares his experience in building rapport with perpetrators of some very dark crimes and understanding how the capacity for violence lives in all of us. He also talks about the need to change the landscape and narrative from “let’s get ISIS” and shares a beautiful image of a young German pianist whose response to the recent violence in Paris was to put his piano on a truck and travel overnight to play Lennon’s “Imagine” for an outdoor audience.
He talks about his vision of the future of conflict resolution work and how building capacity in urban communities to live conflict resolution principles will probably have maximum impact.
There is a lot of learning in this episode. You many want to listen closely, and listen twice.
Listen to this podcast stream or download it here or listen in iTunes if you prefer.
If you are enjoying this podcast, please encourage your friends to subscribe.
Cheers for now,
Susan
Harrison Owen: Opening Space for Peace and High Performance
Dear Subscribers,
In this episode, I interview Harrison Owen the celebrated and iconic creator of Open Space Technology. In his typical fashion, Harrison provides insight in just about every sentence he utters. He describes how Open Space was “channeled” through him by the presence of good gin and inspirations from a village where he lived in West Africa that handled differences by sitting in a simple circle.
Open Space Technology has had probably more impact on how I think about systemic interventions to build common ground than any other. When groups are large, diverse, conflicting and passionate about figuring something out in a big hurry, there is no other process that I think can work magic like Open Space.
Open Space has been used in more than half of the countries on earth in what has been a 30+ year experiment in what Harrison observes as the “natural occurrence of peace and high performance.” In this episode, Harrison talks about how Open space evolved and why he thinks it works in high conflict situations. He describes some specific applications – the first, to a conflict between government agencies and Native Americans about where to build a highway on tribal lands and, the second, a meeting of 50 highly polarized Israelis and Palestinians in Rome.
“One of the interesting things that struck me early on (about Open Space)" he says, "is how hugely conflicting people who had spent a considerable amount of time trying to deal with a particular issue would, for whatever reason, find themselves in an Open Space and, more often than not, come out hugging and kissing – problem solved.”
Listen to this podcast stream or download it here, or listen in iTunes if you prefer. If you are enjoying this podcast, please encourage your friends to subscribe.
Cheers for now,
Susan