Picture credit - NYTimes
Day 8 - Empathy
What is Empathy?
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
This is a nice quote that explains the difference between Empathy and Sympathy -
“Empathy is walking a mile in somebody else's moccasins. Sympathy is being sorry their feet hurt.” ― Rebecca O'Donnell
How to improve Empathy?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Empathy.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Empathy.
- Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of Empathy
- Apply -
- Identify a model suitable to you
- Create a template to document the flow of the process
- Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
- Maintain record/ process flow of every important activity you did with respect to this skill
- Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
- Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
- Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
My learning for the day
Author - Roman Krznaric
This article is about five extraordinary people who got great insights through “experiential empathy” (Where you don’t just imagine someone else’s life but try to live it yourself, doing the things they do, living in the places where they live, and knowing the people they know).
1. St. Francis of Assisi: Learning from beggars
Year 1206 - A turning point in a young man’s life. Giovanni Bernadone, the 23-year-old son of a wealthy merchant, went on a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He could not help noticing the contrast between the opulence and lavishness within and the poverty of the beggars sitting outside.
He persuaded one of them to exchange clothes with him and spent the rest of the day in rags begging for alms. This experience was the starting point of his religious order to serve the poor and the lepers.
Giovanni Bernadone is known to the world as St. Francis of Assisi
2. Beatrice Webb: From comfort to the sweatshop
Beatrice (1858-1943), born into a family of well-off businessmen and politicians, worked as a factory worker in a London textile factory, as part of her research into urban poverty.
Her empathy experiment inspired her to campaign for improved factory conditions and to support the cooperative and trade union movements.
3. Günther Walraff: Two years as an immigrant worker
Günther (1942-NA), a German investigative journalist, spent two years undercover as a Turkish immigrant worker. He wrote about his experience in his book ‘Lowest of the Low’. His study led to criminal investigations of firms using illegal labor, and resulted in improved protection for contract workers in several German states. Walraff’s work demonstrates the unique power of experiential empathy for uncovering social inequality.
Sharing only three stories here. You can read the rest in Roman’s article.
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Empathy is an important ability for career success because it improves your capacity to communicate with others, to be part of a team, and to better your leadership skills.
Summarising here Six Habits of Highly Empathic People so that you are inspired to include some of the habits in your daily life.
Habit 1: Cultivate curiosity about strangers - Highly empathic people have an insatiable curiosity about strangers. Curiosity expands our empathy when we talk to people outside our usual social circle, encountering lives and worldviews very different from our own.
Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities - We all have assumptions about others and use collective labels e.g., “Muslim fundamentalist,” “welfare mom” etc. This prevents us from appreciating their individuality. Highly empathic people challenge their own preconceptions and prejudices and learn to appreciate the beauty in others
Habit 3: Try another person’s life - Highly Empathetic People expand their empathy by gaining direct experience of other people’s lives, putting into practice the Native American proverb, “Walk a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him.”
Habit 4: Listen hard and open up - Highly Empathetic People listen hard to others and do all they can to grasp their emotional state and needs, whether it is a friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer or a spouse who is upset at them for working late yet again
Habit 5: Inspire mass action and social change - Highly Empathetic People initiate/ support movements against oppressions of the powerless
Habit 6: Develop an ambitious imagination - Highly Empathetic People do far more than just empathizing. They create imaginative solutions to solve people’s problems. Most of our startup guys demonstrate empathy when they create technology solutions.
Are you ready for the journey? Bon voyage, Ugodno putovanje!
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these ten basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
128 words - 1 minute reading - Flesch–Kincaid readability score 70-60 - English
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Some insights gained by five extraordinary individuals through "experiential empathy"—immersing themselves in others' lives.
St. Francis of Assisi: Moved by the contrast between wealth and poverty, he donned beggar's clothes, sparking his mission to serve the poor.
Beatrice Webb: Transitioning from privilege to factory labor, she advocated for improved working conditions.
Günther Walraff: Infiltrating as a Turkish immigrant worker, he exposed labor exploitation, prompting legal reforms.
These stories illustrate the transformative power of empathetic experiences in addressing social inequality. Empathy is vital for career success, enhancing communication, teamwork, and leadership. Six habits of highly empathetic individuals include curiosity about strangers, challenging prejudices, and experiencing others' lives firsthand. They listen attentively, catalyze social change, and innovate solutions. Embracing empathy enriches lives and fosters meaningful connections.
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