This document discusses the life skill of empathy. It defines empathy as understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It then provides examples of how some notable individuals improved their empathy through experiential learning, such as living as someone from a different social class would. The document concludes by listing six habits of highly empathic people, such as challenging prejudices and developing an ambitious imagination. The overall purpose is to share lessons about life skills as part of a 66-day challenge.

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Picture credit - ​NYTimes
Day 8 - Empathy
17 April 2020
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Prabodh Sirur
sirurp@gmail.com
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What is Empathy?
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
This is a nice quote that explains the difference between Empathy and Sympathy -
“Empathy is walking a mile in somebody else's moccasins. Sympathy is being sorry their
feet hurt.” ― Rebecca O'Donnell
How to improve Empathy?
Set a goal to ​become a go-to person​ by mastering the art and science of Empathy.
Follow the ​LAST model​ to build your personal brand as a Guru of Empathy.
1. Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of
Empathy
2. Apply -
a. Identify a model suitable to you
b. Create a template to document the flow of the process
c. Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
d. Maintain record/ process flow of every important activity you did with
respect to this skill
e. Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used
for sharing/ training others
3. Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social
media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
4. Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over
time, your organization benefits from your efforts
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My learning for the day
Source - ​5 People Who Changed the World By Taking Compassion to the Extreme
Author - ​Roman Krznaric
This article is about five extraordinary people who got great insights through “experiential
empathy” (Where you ​don’t just imagine someone else’s life ​but try to live it yourself​,
doing the things they do, living in the places where they live, and knowing the people they
know).
1. St. Francis of Assisi: Learning from beggars
Year 1206 - A turning point in a young man’s life. Giovanni Bernadone, the 23-year-old son
of a wealthy merchant, went on a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He could not
help noticing the contrast between the opulence and lavishness within and the poverty of
the beggars sitting outside.
He persuaded one of them to exchange clothes with him and spent the rest of the day in
rags begging for alms. This experience was the starting point of his religious order to serve
the poor and the lepers.
Giovanni Bernadone is known to the world as St. Francis of Assisi
2. Beatrice Webb: From comfort to the sweatshop
Beatrice (1858-1943), born into a family of well-off businessmen and politicians, worked as
a factory worker in a London textile factory, as part of her research into urban poverty.
Her empathy experiment inspired her to campaign for improved factory conditions and to
support the cooperative and trade union movements.
3. Günther Walraff: Two years as an immigrant worker
Günther (1942-NA), a German investigative journalist, spent two years undercover as a
Turkish immigrant worker. He wrote about his experience in his book ‘Lowest of the Low’.
His study led to criminal investigations of firms using illegal labor, and resulted in improved
protection for contract workers in several German states. Walraff’s work demonstrates the
unique power of experiential empathy for uncovering social inequality.
Sharing only three stories here. You can read the rest in Roman’s article.
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Empathy is an important ability for career success because it improves your capacity to
communicate with others, to be part of a team, and to better your leadership skills.
Summarising here ​Six Habits of Highly Empathic People so that you are inspired to include
some of the habits in your daily life.
Habit 1: Cultivate curiosity about strangers - Highly empathic people have an insatiable
curiosity about strangers. Curiosity expands our empathy when we talk to people outside
our usual social circle, encountering lives and worldviews very different from our own.
Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities - We all have assumptions about
others and use collective labels e.g., “Muslim fundamentalist,” “welfare mom” etc. This
prevents us from appreciating their individuality. Highly empathic people challenge their
own preconceptions and prejudices and learn to appreciate the beauty in others
Habit 3: Try another person’s life - Highly Empathetic People expand their empathy by
gaining direct experience of other people’s lives, putting into practice the Native American
proverb, “Walk a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him.”
Habit 4: Listen hard and open up - Highly Empathetic People listen hard to others and do all
they can to grasp their emotional state and needs, whether it is a friend who has just been
diagnosed with cancer or a spouse who is upset at them for working late yet again
Habit 5: Inspire mass action and social change - Highly Empathetic People initiate/ support
movements against oppressions of the powerless
Habit 6: Develop an ambitious imagination - Highly Empathetic People do far more than
just empathizing. They create imaginative solutions to solve people’s problems. Most of our
startup guys demonstrate empathy when they create technology solutions.
Are you ready for the journey? Bon voyage, Ugodno putovanje!
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Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment,
I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges
with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in
my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise
myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning
with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - ​psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour
that enable individuals ​to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of
everyday life​. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills​ for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills​ for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills​ for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The ​World Health Organisation identified these ten basic areas of life skills that are relevant
across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
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- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to
teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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