Some of what is going on in the macro environment is do to what Alvin Toffler coined #FutureShock “too much change in too short a time.” I could go into more about what that is and all that jazz but that wouldn’t get to the of heart the matter. What we need is more heart, more compassion, and more empathy. Here you’ll find a mosaic of meaning and beauty that I hope will allow and foster depth. It is my belief that the more connected one is to his/her core ~ the better one can care for their personal ecosystem. Empathy begins with self.
We will conserve only what we love; love only what we understand; understand only what we are taught ~ Baba Dioum ♥
♫ We Found Love — Lindsey Stirling (VenTribe) ♫
1) #Love: Fundamental problems cannot be solved at the same level of thought that created them. What we pay attention to, and how we pay attention — both individually and collectively — is key to what we create. What often prevents us from “attending” is what Scharmer calls our “blind spot,” the inner place from which each of us operates. Learning to become aware of our blind spot is critical to bringing forth the profound systemic changes so needed in business and society today. I’d like every leader I know to both read and distribute Otto Scharmer’s Leading From the Future as It Emerges.
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2) #Love: Why We Need Each Other “Recent research reveals that people are more capable of mental novelty when thinking on behalf of others than for themselves. This has far-reaching practical implications at every level of business.” Thus spoke, Daniel Pink.
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3) #Love: A Darwinian Theory of Beauty “Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? No, it’s deep in our minds. It’s a gift handed down from the intelligent skills and rich emotional lives of our most ancient ancestors. Our powerful reaction to images, to the expression of emotion in art, to the beauty of music, to the night sky, will be with us and our descendants for as long as the human race exists.” Thus spoke, Denis Dutton.
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4) #Love: We have gone from the “need to have” towards the “need to share” and the collaborative economy has passed its tipping point. An early voice of this movement is Jeremy Rifkin who was the very first to frame the phrase “empathic civilization” — (RSA) (transcript) “A new science is emerging whose operating principles and assumptions are more compatible with empathic ways of thinking. The old science views nature as objects; the new science views nature as relationships. The old science is characterized by detachment, expropriation, dissection, and reduction; the new science is characterized by engagement, replenishment, integration, and holism. The old science is committed to making nature productive; the new science to making nature sustainable. The old science seeks power over nature; the new science seeks partnership with nature. The old science puts a premium on autonomy from nature; the new science on re-participation with nature.”
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5) #Love: The Four Loves “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” ― C.S. Lewis
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6) #Love: While we talk about empathy and moral codes of behavior — there are limits to what we are capable of. Christian Keysers is helping us understand these limits The Empathic Brain by Christian Keysers “ Where neuroscience is interesting, is by showing us the limits of our natural empathy, and helping us devise ethics that are compatible with how our brain works. For instance, our work shows that we feel what goes on in others by projecting what we would feel in their stead. In this context, ethics that suggest ‘treat others as they would like to be treated’ are harder to follow than ethics that suggest ‘treat others as you would like to be treated.” For more perspective on this one I highly recommend Jeneen Interlandi’s ( @JInterlandi )New York Timespiece The Brain Empathy Gap.
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7) #Love: Empathy is a muscle and can be strengthened and developed like any other muscle. One way to foster empathy is through the reading of robust fiction.
“Psychologists David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, at the New School for Social Research in New York, have proved that reading literary fiction enhances the ability to detect and understand other people’s emotions, a crucial skill in navigating complex social relationships.”
Here are some books that can strengthen our collective emotional intelligence.
Here are my favorite movies that also foster perspective.
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8) #Love. I believe a lot of the stress and noise in our macro environment today is a result of people unprepared for post-industrial reality. One of my favorite reframing statements comes from John Hagel (@jhagel):
In a world of mounting performance pressure, we need to shift our focus from employee engagement to employee passion. This is an imperative not just for our institutions, also for all of us as individuals. We have an opportunity to create far more value and achieve far more of our potential than we ever imagined possible. But to harness that opportunity, we need to navigate through the big shift from scalable efficiency to scalable learning.
In his article The Big Shift from Engagement to Passion, Hagel frames these significant markers on how we can build resilience and more swiftly adapt:
- A long-term commitment to achieving an increasing impact in a domain
- A questing disposition that creates excitement when confronted with an unexpected challenge
- A connecting disposition that motivates the individual to systematically seek out others who can help them to get to a better answer faster when confronted with an unexpected challenge
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9) #Love: Families, communities, and workplaces are made up of teams. Google has done a great deal of research on what enables people to work effectively together. You can see their research on team dynamics in New York Times and Inc. Much of the research points to the work of Dr. Deci who coined the phrase “self-determination theory.” What have learned is that there are three fundamental environmental requirements for the ability to thrive: autonomy, competence and connectedness. We have myriads of resources to foster autonomy and build core competence. My invitation in our focus is that we get better at telling stories and building tools to foster connectedness. Let me be clear — having the ability to connect technologically does not not equal feeling a sense of belonging. Connectivity is not the kind of connection needed.
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10) #Love As we are becoming more connected digitally, we are becoming less connected in our own sense of belonging. Epidemic loneliness is ravaging our country. The tragic key indicators here are suicide and drug abuse.
There has never been a more urgent time than NOW for us to acknowledge that we are all connected. Humanity — this is our moment.
In love and in the rigor,
Jennifer
