As the world becomes more globalised, interconnected and interdependent, there has simultaneously been a rise in schisms, extremism, and conflict. Our communities, universities and workplaces are more diverse and international than ever in history, and thus the need to be able to communicate, understand, and collaborate across differences is more essential now than ever before. 

To be able to harness the power of diversity and difference – and to prevent it from turning into discord – means being able to build relationships and lead challenging conversations. Research has shown that institutions, businesses and communities cannot afford to navigate these conversations with anything less than skill and confidence. 21st-century leadership means knowing how to find unity in diversity, to find strength in difference, to achieve teamwork without forced consensus, and to turn a conflict into a success. 

We use our facilitator talent, digital tools, research, and thousands of hours of experience to bring people together through online dialogue and training programmes to empower them to communicate, understand, connect, collaborate and transform.

We have a history of locating the deepest fractures in societies and aiming our efforts there. We started by bringing together hundreds of students around Europe into live virtual dialogues regarding the ongoing European economic crisis in 2013, and about the rising ‘us vs. them’ rhetoric across Europe in 2015. In 2017, at the height of the refugee ‘crisis’ in Europe, the quality of Sharing Perspectives’ work was recognized by the European Commission when they contracted us to address the  reactionary responses to increasing cultural diversity, newcomers, and integration in Europe by integrating our virtual dialogues into the Erasmus+ framework. 

Believing that true understanding and bridge-building can only happen when the social groups being discussed can have a seat at the table, we partnered with refugee organisations to bring refugee and migrant youth into live, online intercultural dialogue with students from universities in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The result was deeply transformative conversations, stereotype deconstruction, and long-term friendships. Participants also practised the dialogue skills they learned from their facilitators when they worked with one another to facilitate their own intercultural dialogues between members of their respective communities. 

Since then, we have delivered equally impactful cross-border or cross-boundary dialogue programmes focusing on the most pressing communication breakdowns in public discourse, including gender inequality, hate speech, the role of youth in peace and security, nationalism, populism, racism, sustainability and climate justice. We have used our unique skill set and leadership role in the field of facilitation, dialogue, relationship building, cross-cultural understanding and prejudice reduction to provide consultation and training to professionals, educators, government institutions and intergovernmental organisations. We have also maintained our position at the forefront of research and publications in this field, consistently using the emerging data to evolve our work and elevate our impact.