Founding Peace: journey with me to build Peace IQ while learning how to "build" Peace IQ
“A rude awakening if that nation return to business as usual” MLKJr.?
I am on an exploration. To find the stories of peace, the stories that we have lost and the knowledge that we failed to capture from leaders across world history that successfully help people to coexist.
Perhaps because I was born in the Liberian civil war, my father spent my childhood downloading ancestral stories as well as stories from all parts of the world of leaders that either chose power or leaders who sucessfully created peaceful societies. What surprised me when later pursuing an education in peace and conflict resolution and even in my practice as a peacebuilder, is how many of these stories are unknown and more importantly the skills, strategies, and intelligence that have been lost to our modern way of life. Yet, I believe that solving for peace is the most important challenge of our time. And it's a challenge that people no longer expect just governments to solve between themselves. Instead, we are looking at leaders in much closer spheres of influence - at work, at school, at home to solve for peace. Why is this? What has changed about who we see to be responsible for creating peace? Well, a lot! 10 years ago we worked 9-5 in cubicles with little connection to what was happening in the outside world and came home to an hour of news around the world of horrific scences of conflict taking place in another country or news about a handful of cities in our own country that we wrote off as problematic. We could compartmentalize conflict as not our personal problem and not important to our business operations. Today, the workforce has constant around-the-clock exposure to failing global leadership, social conflict in their own neighborhoods, spillover social conflict into the workplace, and even glimpses into each other’s personal conflict as we live our lives connected on screen.
We are all facing conflict, it is endemic to almost every aspect of our lives. And with the constant exposure to how bad things are, also comes the push to do something about it. From equity in the workspace to the push for corporate social justice, we are moving towards a collective truth: Peace is now everyone’s job. Yet, we still desire someone to lead it. We still expect someone to be accountable to organize and innovate a way forward. All around the world people are watching and pressuring leaders to create a more peaceful place to coexist and work together. But, do we know how? How do we know we are getting better at it? Can you measure peace? What are the benefits of peace? What skills do I need? How do I explain this to corporate leaders that don't understand how much this affects my team? Imagine if you are a manager with a degree in business administration and all of a sudden the entire world’s problems are on your shoulders. Or if you have created a start up to tackle social issues but your team burns out from the constant weight of facing conflict. There is a lot to learn together!?
And it's a lot to solve for! In searching for the answers I am journeying to talk to leaders who have successfully integrated the science of peace. They have figured out how to start it, scale it, and are committed to teaching peace skills to the world. We will learn what do these people have in common and how can we leverage this type of intelligence in our everyday operations. From talking to founders that lead businesses in actual conflict zones,? to peace leaders in governments around the globe, to people that decided to venture out and start their own methods to the maddness. We will learn how to help bring diverse groups of people together to achieve a common purpose. Also, keeping in tradition with what my father passed down to me, I hope to highlight and to uncover the stories of the leaders who have contributed their life’s journey to finding another way forward.?
In this series I will also open up about my journey in becoming a Peace Founder and the lessons I learn in choosing to take the uncarved path. In starting up Peace IQ, I know that it will take a community of strength, to define peace together, to share the failures and sucesses, and to hold ourselves accountable to continual learning. Peace is something for all of us to unlock and to solve a new way of coexisting we must all contribute a part of our common understanding and make it our future. We are building Peace IQ while learning how to "build" Peace IQ!
June Benjamin, Esq. is a peace innovator, war crimes and human rights attorney, & global partnership strategist. Her start up Peace IQ helps teach people how to measure and train peace skills and the business value of peace.
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