Are you Profiting from the Peace you’re Creating?
Is your business or organization measuring the constant positive impact (or positive social peace) you are creating through daily interactions?
Research shows companies don’t have a consistent way of demonstrating social impact. As a result, investors with funds allocated for social impact have difficulty defining, discovering and investing in projects and companies that fulfill the Social aspects of ESG.
Mark Nelson, founder of the Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford and co-founder of the Peace Innovation Institute in The Hague, talks about the hidden data that any organization using technology in their daily operations generates automatically on their positive peace impact on the world, something. We call this Peace Data
POSITIVE PEACE - WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
When peace is defined as an end state, people tend to think of it as the absence of violence, which is fine as far as it goes, but this is a passive and not operational definition. By contrast, peace can also be viewed as a suite of positive, prosocial behaviors that maximize mutually beneficial positive outcomes from interactions with others.
We can find peace behaviors, and peace creation in very simple day to day interactions. Peace customs, peace behaviors we use everyday in our life and we don’t label as such, are found in many cultures. Margarita Quihuis talks about the hispanic culture and how popular phrases “Mi casa es tu casa” are really collective peace behaviors, normalized by a community where they welcome strangers to make them feel comfortable, make them feel at home.
The same way, Galician culture welcomes people to feel at home offering food, and encourages generosity and sharing in the community which is reflected through customs like “a vergoña do galego” (the embarrassment of galicians) common practice is to leave the last slice or piece of food on the plate for the other person to eat, making sure all are well fed and food is shared.
This type of peace customs that have become integrated into society and spread through every member of a community contribute to proactively increasing peace in the world.
Likewise, the way we interact with each other in the work space, the way we cooperate with business partners from all around the world and from different incomes to achieve a common goal, are peace behaviors and therefore can increase global peace.
Simple behaviors like Facebook friendships created between individuals that belong to communities in active conflict is an act of peace. Even companies like Uber, that have a reputation for mistreating employees, create peace by assisting with the interaction of people from different nationalities, backgrounds and across all types of difference boundaries, and directly contribute to peace building.
PEACE DATA - MEASURING THE PEACE YOU ARE CREATING
Peace Data is the data we can collect from a single episode of engagement, in an interaction between two individuals, across some difference boundary, when they interact through a mediating technology. Data on the number of friendships created on Facebook between communities in conflict, or data on the length an Uber driver interacts with their client and the satisfaction of that interaction, are a form of peace data.
Examples of peace data in businesses are data on the frequency and quality of interactions between a diverse group of coworkers or from collaborations and interactions with their networks, stakeholders and business partners.
Peace data contains some standard dimensions or variables, including:
Behavioral Data: What social behaviors are present in the interaction?
Longitudinal Data: Does an episode of engagement elicit a response (reciprocity)? How frequent is the interaction? How strong is the connection?
Metadata: It allows for the understanding of the mechanics involved in the interactions. It allows us to track interactions across time, and through group identities. “Peace metadata can provide information about peace through positive engagement on different scale measurements, level of engagement episode or length of interaction.“
Example of and episode of engagement we can get peace data from
PEACE FINANCE - HOW CAN YOU PROFIT FROM THE PEACE YOU ARE CREATING
Peace Finance is the capitalization of peace through the fusion of Social, Relational and Financial Capital. It is a more ethical type of finance that places a focus on the positive interactions of people that cooperate together across various difference boundaries to create mutually beneficial outcomes. Peace Finance is a path to building a more equitable economy.
THE PEACE DATA STANDARD - A VEHICLE FOR ESG INVESTMENT
The Hague Peace Data Standard addresses the capital dilemma for both investors seeking social impact with their returns (for example pension funds), and for companies who want to minimize their finance costs while maximizing stakeholder loyalty and their brand value, by being measurably ESG Index compliant. It is a way of standardizing peace data providing a common reference for companies to identify, monitor and report the positive peace they create in the world as well as be rewarded for peace creation.
For any business or organization using technology in their operations, it enables for measurements and evaluation of interactions across difference boundaries.
Most companies are already generating peace data. But how can we measure it and economize on it? This is where the Peace Data Standard comes as a vehicle for ESG investment, and a point of reference for companies to identify, monitor and report Positive Peace.
Advantages of measuring Peace Data for businesses:
Measuring the impact of having diverse teams
Gain insights and understanding of positive interactions that occur between employees that cross “difference boundaries”
Understand and capitalize on positive value created in society
Reveals largely unseen, invisible relationships and dynamics within those relationships
Determining an economic value for peace
The ultimate goal in Peace is to make it sustainable and scalable. How can your company capitalize and contribute to the creation of Peace? If you are interested in Peace Data and Peace Finance get Involved!
1. Help source Peace Data
2. Help your organization get recognition for the positive peace it is generating.
3. Help make Peace Data auditable, so it becomes an effective market
4. Signal for (at least some of) the true value peace creates
5. Help improve the standard
6. Help establish a Peace Data Prize