With Sarri Bater and Sophie Docker, from Open Edge Transforming Conflict

Conflict is a fact of life. It always has been and always will be. But this doesn’t mean violence will always accompany it — which is such a nice starting point for our experiment of running the world during KIN.

In this experiential workshop, led by Sarri Bater and Sophie Docker, who’ve dedicated their lives to transforming conflict in places most of us would fear to tread, we’ll be asked to reach out across the divides that separate us from others – whether they be geo-political, personal, tribal or whatever. We’ll be challenged to explore how much we embrace difference; how we make change in divergent groups;  and how we feel about outsiders in any given group.  Perhaps, you’ve been one?

At the root of all conflict is our intolerance of difference.  We have tendencies to construct and demonise “the other” and then surround ourselves with people with similar perspectives, in turn reinforcing these feelings of difference. If, when things are not working for us, we can ask “why do I feel like this?”, not “who has done it?”, we move beyond victim and perpetrator, blame and punishment into a whole new field of togetherness and possibilities for transformation. It’s an approach being used all over the globe — whether in war zones, embattled boardrooms or communities at loggerheads.

Getting to the crux of what helps and hinders positive change, Sophie and Sarri will work with us to restore curiosity, reach out across divides and simply ask “how is it to be you?” – hence reconnecting us to the humanity we all share.

KIN’s world is feeling much kinder already.

Open Edge -new paradigm prototyping – Kin 2018

“…a reunification, a restoring, where we can experience ourselves as essential in an interconnected life system.”