Building empathy

I wonder, what is the best way to learn empathy?

The research suggests we should read novels, watch films, help others, volunteer, travel.

I think I’ve got one to add to the mix – a photographic walkshop. More about that later.

My point is that there are so many ways to learn empathy and certainly ways other than the ‘empathy training’ currently being given to one of Australia’s federal politicians, Andrew Laming. 

Clinical psychologist and empathy explorer, Carl Rogers, reckons that ‘an empathic way of being can be learned from empathic persons.’

I’m sure ‘empathic persons’ are conducting the ‘empathy training’ for Laming but it is going to backfire. That’s because he is being ordered to do it. It’s the punishment for his appalling, misogynistic behaviour. 

It won’t work. 

It saddens me to hear of empathy being packaged up in a course. As Sue Williams, human resources academic from the University of NSW, said, ‘People are right to be dubious about empathy training — it has all the hallmarks of a human resources fad.’

Empathy was coined in the 1920s by psychologist Edward Titchner as a translation of the German Einfühlung, ‘feeling-in’ and has been evolving ever since. My trusted Macquarie dictionary defines it as, ‘mentally entering into the feeling or spirit of a person.’

But how do we do that?

I like how Sarah Konrath, from the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research talks about building empathy as a ‘…muscle capable of growth’ and ‘regeneration’ [1]. That has a flip side of course. If not exercised, it’s prone to ‘atrophy’. 

She says that, “People have different innate capacities for building certain muscles, just as we have different incentives for being empathetic and experiences in honing our skills to empathise. For some people, empathy comes easily and naturally; for others, concerted effort is required to stretch our imaginations beyond ourselves." [2]

‘Concerted effort’ does not have to mean learning  - resentfully - in a training course.

There are other ways and I’d like to offer one. It took an observer – Cindy Lenforna de la Motte – to tell me that my photographic walkshops are, at their heart, a process for building empathy.

I knew that the process I created helps people to see other’s perspectives and appreciate different points of view. I had not quite twigged that my walkshop - which I call Show What Matters™ – could also be called an empathy walk.

How cool is that? It was right under my nose. Thanks Cindy!

I’m not on my Todd Malone here. Elliott Erwitt, a Magnum photographer in the 1930s summed up the human connection made through photos. “You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity”

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[1] http://www.sarakonrath.com/people.html
[2] http://cultureofempathy.com/References/Experts/Sara-Konrath.htm

When you’re ready to help your team, stakeholders or community connect deeply and build empathy, give me a call about Show What Matters™

It’s a facilitated photo walkshop for your organisation. People shoot photos, share stories and show what matters to them.

Just comment below or email me with ‘empathy’ in the subject field and we’ll book a call to see if it’s a good fit for you.