Arbinger is on iTunes

Periodically, the Arbinger Community hosts a global community call with an Arbinger leader. The topics have included business leadership, significant relationships, peacebuilding, the law, and more. These calls can be accessed in podcast form by clicking here. If you need something interesting and thought-provoking to keep you company on a commute, occupy your mind while you wash dishes, or simply help you pass the time, give these a try. For some, they are an audio out-of-the-box space.

Playing for Peace

Conflict erodes everything that helps things go right. There is one organization that is transforming conflict into peace in some of the most tumultuous regions of the world. And they are using an unconventional tool - basketball. PeacePlayers International (PPI) is a charitable organization that uses sport to bring children together from opposite sides of religious, ethnic, and cultural divides to develop friendships and mutual respect. They operate in North Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East, and Cyprus and incorporate Arbinger's concepts and training in their operations and curriculum.

On the PPI website, it states that:

"All of PPI’s programs include an element of formal peace and leadership education, anchored by an innovative basketball-based curriculum developed in partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the Arbinger Institute.... The curriculum uses a combination of fun, on-court activities and guided discussion to teach young people a way of thinking about conflict and their role in society. It emphasizes “out of the box” thinking – a way of interacting with those around us that honors both others' humanity and our own responsibility for change."

Essentially, PPI creates out-of-the-box-spaces in which youth who usually view each other in hostile ways come to see each other in a different light – as equals who share many of the same hopes, fears, dreams, and ambitions. They point out that “(b)y giving young people a language to describe personal and communal conflict, this curriculum helps them extend the lessons they learn within PPI to their lives far beyond the court.”

However, curriculum alone could not accomplish what PPI does. PPI seeks to emulate in their organization what they teach youth on the court. Every staff member, volunteer, and participant is viewed as family, or in other words as people who count the same as each other. Those involved with the organization are committed to PPI’s mission and they hold themselves accountable for the level of results they accomplish with the resources they have. They foster mutual support among their members and are willing to take on difficult tasks, challenging each other when there is a problem to be solved or they think there is a better way to help things go right. The principles taught by the Arbinger Institute help PeacePlayers International maintain this type of organizational culture and spread their message of peace one basketball drill at a time.

If you would like to learn more about PPI’s work, please go to their website at www.peaceplayersintl.org. They appreciate the support.