Ubuntu: Changing
the Face of our World

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Changing the face of education

Students are often trained to aptitude standardized tests and the role of imagination, creativity and social responsibility are put on the back burner or not taught at all. By infusing Ubuntu into our educational institutions we build social intelligence and help students in key areas such as conflict resolution, active listening and helping them critique the impact of our world on each other.

Bringing ubuntu to the workplace

Ubuntu based principles in the workplace reduce conflict or violence and increase productivity. Build a workforce that is more invested, caring and cooperative. Help resolve conflict at the first sign of discontent and give all employees the opportunity to have creative input and build your company or organization.

Advancing a new kind of law

The Ubuntuworks Project was founded by Human Rights Attorney Eric Sirotkin and grew out of his work around the world with alternative dispute resolution. Having worked with the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers in the 1990s, and been trained as a mediator and in collaborative law, he has since championed legal wellness and non-violent advocacy that navigates conflict in a way that enhances health and wellbeing. Board members Fernanda Guerra works with conscious contracts and Raphael Masesa brings indigenous models of conflict resolution to the table. See the Ubuntuworks School course on Creative Tools for Lawyering. Breaking down “us vs them” dynamics and evolving the legal system can bring people together and expand the healing from conflict.

The many avenues of conflict resolution

All around the world we are seeing conflict resolution processes that reflect ubuntu-based principles. From the Navajo Peacemaker Courts to Drug or Veteran courts in the US, society is embracing the need for new relational-based conflict resolution. In schools across the country teenage mediators reduce conflict at school and teach students active listening, helping them out of a cycle of violence or battle.

Turning protests into greater change

Do we become, as Archbishop Tutu used to say “like the system we oppose” or do we effectuate change with a more compassionate and open heart? Relational activism dispels the notion that there is pure good and evil, but recognizes that we are all in this soup together. How do we effectively make change, while letting go of anger, listening deeper and operating from strength and non-violence?

Big changes in corporate responsibility

Do corporations and institutions operate for their shareholders or for the stakeholders? Do we take into account the impact on the community, the state or the planet? How do we as businesses and institutions redefine success through the filter of ubuntu?

Ubuntu holds the key to building peace

Ubuntu based principles can be used on the international level to reduce conflict and build relationships between nations.

Peacemaking is at the heart of ubuntu practices. In 2012, on behalf of the Ubuntuworks Project, Sirotkin took his Roadmap for Peace in Korea to North Korea, and then before to the US Congress and the State Department. The roadmap uses ubuntu-based principles of active listening, finding shared ground, moving beyond demonization, letting go of the tug of war rope and moving from reaction to relationship. Exploring difficult relationships creatively can build a durable peace and reduce conflict and violence.

Developing Connected Communities

Ubuntu based principles such as listening deeply, respecting others and finding common ground are key principles of community development and redevelopment. It can guide our work in the world among our neighbors, co-workers, families, and the world at large. Ubuntu based development can transform our ways of thinking, our work, our connections to local community. It can help build a sense of community bringing all the residents closer together and nurturing stronger ties. Do we ask and respect the stakeholders? Does the development encourage collaboration?

Recent Additions to the Ubuntuworks Resource Hub

The Resource Hub provides organizations and individuals interested in a more connected and compassionate world with data, stories, studies and support for the importance of ubuntu-based principles in our world.

Worldwide Organizations