Ways of Seeing: The Empathy Issue

“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.” José Ortega y Gasset

Welcome to The Empathy Issue! In our opening with Berger, we talked about ‘border-crossing’ and the sense and sensibility of walking in each other’s shoes. Empathy has now gained greater currency within the current ‘language of leadership’. The question that we seek to unpack is where currency takes on real agency - and to how and where it manifests as both individual and collective agency. In a conversation with Adi Ignatius , when asked to define the most important driver of innovation, Satya Nadella gave this answer:

“The source of innovation is the most humane quality that we have, which is empathy.”

When 谷歌 ’s Project Aristotle, led by Julia Rozovsky , set out to better understand high-performing teams, empathy emerged as one of the defining and unifying factors. It shows up again with the founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society , Dov Seidman , in his conversation with 纽约时报 . As the debate builds around the implications of generative AI, he talked about “what makes us uniquely human: our creativity, our curiosity and, at our best, our capacity for hope, ethics, empathy, grit and collaborating with others.”

If we are to challenge and change towards a more collaborative, conscious and connected mindset of leadership, we need to ensure that empathy is not an abstraction, and that it is hardwired in our very infrastructure. Becoming part of common language is a stepping stone on the journey - how we make it part of who we are, of how we make space and time for others, and in how we work more effectively, is where we need to dig in. The 'soft skills' have been crying out for a serious rebranding as the 'hardwired skills'.

For this issue, I spoke with two leaders in their field whose radar on empathy has taken it to another level of professional attention and focus, and we unpacked the tension between how we talk about it, and how we act on it. And this is where this issue begins - with the luminous Dr Claire Yorke and Patti Sanchez , at the confluence of a ‘72 and sunny’ morning in San Jose, and through the pallid light of late afternoons in Denmark and London.?Empathy has held the attention and focus of much of Claire and Patti’s work and research in different fields, but in ways that we discovered were highly complementary. And we got together to begin to discuss three questions:

why empathy?

why now?

what’s next?

Claire is an academic and advisor specialising in the role and limitations of empathy and emotions in security, international affairs, politics, leadership, and society. Previously at 耶鲁大学 , she is now in Denmark, leading a Marie Sk?odowska-Curie project funded by the European Union . She is writing two books, one on empathy’s role in diplomacy, and one on political leadership. Her other writing explores various dimensions of empathy, as well as the broader importance of emotions to politics and security.

Patti is chief strategy officer at Duarte, Inc. , and co-author with Nancy Duarte , of the deeply insightful and evocative book Illuminate. She has written extensively on empathy for publications such as the Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review , and Fast Company .

“Why empathy? And how are you both looking at empathy today?”

Patti - empathy is core to the method that I teach and my life philosophy. I define it as the ability to understand yourself, to understand other people, and adapt how you communicate with them based on that understanding. It remains central to my life’s work, as I continue to see empathy gaps within companies.

Claire?- I agree Patti – it is a core part of my philosophy too. I am looking at how empathy can be a source of change, and a tool, a practice, an ethos and a mindset that can help empower and include more people, and reimagine our politics, security and societies. I have been working on empathy for over ten years as an academic and author, and my experiences working with politics and policy further my belief that empathy has to be tangible and practical.?

“And Claire, how do you define empathy?”

Claire - “I share Patti’s definition, especially the importance of understanding ourselves and the impact we have on others through our words and action. I frame empathy as a means to help us move from power over to power with. It’s not an easy shift, and seeing that there is greater value in collaboration rather than competition, will make some people uncomfortable. In my work I am interested in this discomfort and resistance we sometimes feel with empathy and its limitations. There’s a big chapter in my next book on coexistence, as so much language today is framed and rooted in terms of conflict, and we have to create new systems and reward different behaviours in the everyday. As I’m talking with citizen democracy movements, and people in civil society offering new approaches to how we live, work and lead, I see and hear a huge amount of hope and vision from them.

Why now? You have both had very interesting paths into this shared commitment to empathy – how do those resonate today?

Patti – for me, it goes all the way back to my childhood where I felt that the people I loved deeply were misunderstood by others. It motivated me to create, and be part of, safe spaces in the world where individuals are accepted and respected for who they are and given the support they need to thrive. The catalyst for applying that philosophy in business happened in 2013 when Nancy and I were researching the Illuminate book. As we studied business transformations, we realised empathy was a big missing ingredient in corporate communications. It’s not a skill that they’re taught, and it’s not something that they’re measured on. There’s no business metric.

Claire - There is a gap and tension between how we talk about it and how we make it part of who we are and how we work. When I was working in Parliament in the UK for a frontbench MP, there were a number of instances where I saw the critical importance of language and relationship building in bringing about real change and bridging divides. And that has stayed with me ever since – change and action can hinge on this capacity for empathetic language and how we use it.

There’s a tangibility to your work which takes empathy out of the abstraction and makes it very real.?

Patti – Claire's example reminds me of a story about the hard work of empathy that sticks in my mind. I was working with a CEO of a company trying to socialise a substantial change in the business. The messaging was key to the successful socialisation of the strategy for change, but the CEO had strong opinions about how he wanted to message that change, which were his personal reasons for believing the strategy was right. What his team and I had to work on was the gap between how that message would be received. That gap led to some uncomfortable conversations while I was working with him on the communication and delivery of that vision to employees, to shift his mindset, and that journey led to a successful destination in what we made happen. It was a great example of how we need to think differently about the ‘soft skills’.

What’s next?

Patti - Empathy can be tough – and these can be hard conversations – because their goal is to arrive at shared understanding. But that takes transparency, authenticity and vulnerability, which can be an uncomfortable journey along the way.

Claire – there are really similar themes there, and it’s striking that what feels so obvious – understanding and connecting with others as a way to achieve success and provide better solutions – is often very revelatory. We see this now in political leadership and the value of empathy. With multiple crises in the world, we need to find better solutions that are more inclusive. This is going to involve uncomfortable dialogues and difficult shifts in how we engage with each other. We need to find ways to help not only leaders, but everyone, embrace the power of emotions and develop a more empathetic and collaborative mindset. So often we find comfort in binaries, we live in a society which has acclimatised itself to an ‘either / or’ mindset, or this idea that you are on one side or the other. To create an environment that reduces that binary, we need a greater tolerance of ambiguity, complexity and of failure, and that’s where empathy, with its multiple purposes and roles, can offer really exciting opportunities."

My wholehearted thanks to Claire and Patti for a conversation across cultures and contexts that was a luminous as it was a practical call to action, with some tangible insights for us all. Empathy can only truly begin with an understanding first of ourselves – with the energy, generosity and vulnerability that it implies. As I was reflecting on our conversation, there are many voices who came to mind. As we round out this issue, I have selected three of those voices, whose perspectives seemed relevant and resonant to bring together here: the writers and philosophers José Ortega y Gasset, Simone Weil and Susan Sontag. Empathy begins with paying attention, which gets us thinking in a deeper way about what we pay attention to, and in how we pay attention.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” ?Simone Weil

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”

“Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.” Susan Sontag

?

“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.” José Ortega y Gasset

As a tangible action from this issue, I would like to put a spotlight on a longstanding commitment to empathetic leadership pioneered by the luminous Pinky Lilani CBE DL and her team, with the Women of the Future Programme . Empathy in action runs through every programme!

COMPLEMENTARY READING AND LISTENING

And a huge thank you to everyone for your feedback on the first issue of Ways of Seeing on the value of the complementary reading - more to percolate here!

Claire Yorke https://claireyorke.me/publications; and two books that she has edited on diplomacy

Patti Sanchez The secret to organisational change is empathy; and her book with Nancy Duarte, Illuminate.

For further reading on Susan Sontag

• On Photography
• Against Interpretation

For further reading on Simone Weil

• Gravity and Grace
• The Power of Words

For further reading on José Ortega y Gasset

• La Deshumanizacion del Arte
• El Tema del Nuestro Tiempo

#brand #culture #generations #creativity #attention #empathy #generosity #leadership #futureofleadership #nextgen #nextgeneration #crossgenerational #interdisciplinary #learning #education?#collaboration