5 Vital Signs of a Healthy Society with Shamil Idriss | SXSW EDU 2025 Rewind

In many ways this year’s SXSW EDU Conference & Festival felt like a vibe check on how the community is dealing with all the changes and the shifting outlook that’s been dominating education news (and global news more broadly). The idea of embracing curiosity over certainty was a big theme coming out of the event and speaks to the idea of turning conflict into progress, as Shamil Idriss addressed in the closing keynote.

Shamil took the stage to share his organization’s approach to peace building throughout the world, providing a lens for education leaders to connect more deeply within the communities they serve. Using the frame of key medical vital signs like temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure, Shamil identified five vital pillars of a healthy society that serve as a way to evaluate the strength of a community, a country, or a region of the world.

The five signs are (1) trust, (2) institutional legitimacy, (3) safety, (4) agency, and (5) resourcing. While designed as a check on society, many of these vital signs align with the needs of our students in our places of learning and speak to the core components of belonging.

One of the key strategies that Shamil’s organization, Search for Common Ground, uses to cultivate impact is through creating multipartial coalitions. Building teams that reflect the range of stakeholders involved is an important step towards resolving conflict for five reasons: it fosters unparalleled credibility, collective wisdom, unparalleled authenticity, it’s very pragmatic, and creates a bias toward action.

Throughout his talk, Shamil unpacked many deep learnings and shared stories from their work around the world along the way. In the first 30 minutes, he walks through the five components of their approach to addressing conflict (some of which I just called out) and then in the final half of the talk, he answers questions leveraging experiences from throughout his life.

Dive into Turning Conflict Into Progress in Our Divided Times with Shamil Idriss and draw your own conclusions on how to seek progress in your community.

Watch SXSW EDU 2025 On-Demand Content

Take a look back at SXSW EDU 2025 and relive exciting Keynotes, Featured Sessions, and more, now available to watch on our official YouTube channel, plus listen to hundreds of audio recordings in the schedule.

Stay tuned for more information about registration and participation opportunities for SXSW EDU 2026 coming later this summer.

Photo by Vanessa Velasquez