To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
—Mary Oliver, from In Blackwater Woods
Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Empathy Opens My Heart to This…
April 29th, 2010Widespread Empathy: Rewiring Your Corporation for Intuition
October 5th, 2009
How many times have you stared at a competitor’s new product and said, “We had that idea two years ago, but we just didn’t act on it.” Well, why not? Did you think the market research wasn’t quite right? Did you become convinced that it wasn’t a good idea when you couldn’t rally other people around it? Did people get in your way with stupid or irrelevant questions that tied the team up in a state of analysis paralysis? The difference between good companies and great companies is not the quality of their ideas. It’s their ability to anticipate and act on the needs of their customers. Companies with a widespread sense of empathy prosper over the long term.
Dev is the author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book that reveals how empathy is at the heart of innovation.
Got Empathy? International Day for Empathic Action. Oct. 2
September 21st, 2009People who participate in the International Day of Empathic Action will help to build strong trusting relationships in their communities, promote nonviolence as a viable way of life, and establish compassionate ways of living together. IDEA events will directly expose participants to the power of empathy and the effective change it can have on local and global issues.
Some ideas for participation:
- Call a local coffee shop – Coffee, Tea, & Empathy
- At a school – offer to be an Empath for the day
- Be an Empathy First Responder – offer servie to fire departments, police departments, etc.
- Ask to work with a victim witness team for the day
- Go to a nursing home or hospital – bring an Needs Card deck & play empathy poker with folks
- Offer Empathy-To-Go in the form of a smile or empathic presence
- At a nursing home or assisted living center, offer to listen with empathy
- Go to a senior center, offer to listen with empathy – for staff or attendees
- Make 10 phone calls to people you know who may need connection – listen with empathy.
- Reflect empathy to everyone you encounter for the day
- If encounter someone homeless – take them for a meal & listen to their story
- Make cards of appreciation that clearly state how someone has enriched your life -Mail them
- Partner with local NVC community to create an event
- Contact your local Peace and Justice center – offer your service for the day
- Invite various social action groups to come together to cross pollinate for peace
- Read a story about Empathic Action to your family before bed
Boston.com: Empathy promotes healing
August 10th, 2009A Healing Hope: Lessons from a WWII ghetto resonate with doctors today
In the Lodz ghetto in Poland, home to as many as 204,000 Jews during World War II, there were 170 doctors, as well as a few nurses and midwives, according to diaries and memoirs. Like all the others, the Jewish healers lived with the daily terror of being shipped off to a death camp.
Meryl Streep on Empathy
August 3rd, 2009The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.
—Meryl Streep
