our Impact / Leo’s

Lokahi's unique method brings together groups locked in conflict, and builds trust in only one day.

LEO events bring different groups around the same tables, to discover the perspective of the other through a uniquely relevant story. We’ve used it with faith groups, police, local authorities, and community organisations.

Learning from Each Other, or LEO, is a powerful method to counteract entrenched positions, deep-rooted prejudice, and tensions or open conflicts between groups that see each other as a threat.

How it works

How do you turn around hostile attitudes, mistrust, and ignorance? We target these intractable problems in an unthreatening way. LEO events create the respectful atmosphere where people can say what they really think. Then they play out situations in someone else’s shoes: acting out their perspective, taking their decisions, and negotiating this in a mixed group.

By sharing experiences, we create understanding. Seeing what others go through – and being understood yourself – makes it possible to change your attitudes and behaviour, and to see others changing with you. Divides are rapidly broken down with the recognition that ‘they’re just like us’, and that it’s not easy to be ‘them’.

By the end, participants aren’t just swapping business cards – they’re swapping hugs.