The Case Against Empathy
This one’s on empathy. Like many other buzzwords, the word ‘empathy’ has been thrown around so much that it has begun to mean something entirely different. When we hear the word empathy, we often think it to be something that is entirely positive and helpful, but what if this is not the case?
In reading Paul Bloom’s Against Empathy, I’ve found that much of the assumption around empathy can be misplaced and misunderstood.
Empathy has its place. And, of course, it has value - when put in the appropriate context. But ultimately, what many executives I speak with are finding (paired with very interesting research), a misinterpretation of empathy is forcing us to lose sight of a bigger picture. We are so focused on an individual that we can make irrational decisions that aren’t beneficial to a larger initiative or organization.
From actually promoting biases (we are empathic with our own type of people) to innumeracy (this one person is more important than the 100 or 1000 others) to increasing our stress levels (increased empathy has shown higher suffering later in the week), our perspective can be skewed with too much empathy. And with organizations going full-tilt in training and learning initiatives towards promoting empathy, businesses can be hurt and negatively impacted due to this misunderstanding.
Empathy is good from a moral and humanity perspective, but it must be paired with logic, reasoning and compassion. Our learning and development initiatives need to provide empathy training within context, and teach the additional skill sets with it.
As the world changes so quickly, and the very important recognition of the human beings that we work with, we have an obligation, from a business focus, to differentiate logic and emotion, and use these inputs to inform effective decisions to help businesses survive. Those that don’t will surely be left behind.
This week’s podcast explores it in more detail, and it’s a fun exercise to think, ourselves, about our own ability to feel, but differentiating that from giving weight and compassion to the concerns of others. This has implications from everything, from back to the office discussions to ongoing diversity and inclusion initiatives. Rather than blindly following a basic learning agenda, we all know that context is vital as we build our own philosophy on interpersonal activity and relationships. I’ll leave that as your thought of the week and would love to chat more - reach out and share your thoughts!
