It is curious that while the ability of the human being to recognise and understand the experience of another is prehistoric and very likely found in the rest of our primate family, the term “Empathy” is very recent in the English language, having only appeared in English language dictionaries in 1908, modelled on the German term “Einfühlung”, a word related not to interpersonal experience but to the understanding of art, also from not long before.
If we believe that language plays a significant role in our experience of the world and thus how we behave (which I do), the absence of a conscious understanding of this capability and experience for a significant period of the history of Western civilisation, may very well have driven a culture which has not not valued this particular aspect of human nature. The causal relationship could go either way without affecting the premise.
“ language plays a significant role in our experience of the world”
This is not to say that the whole culture has no understanding of the experience of empathy merely because the words didn’t exist. The ability to put oneself in the position of another human being or even another conscious entity, is genetic and people have always done it, in all cultures. However, the late coining of the word and its uncommon presence in the day to day routine do suggest a certain lack of significance of the experience in our standard perspective of the world. In fact since it’s coining, it has been a concept that is generally been restricted largely to the humanities, especially psychology, and it is only in the past decade, that it has started taking a place in the general consciousness, especially as it relates to business. The fact that it was and continues to be seen as an important, even essential, tool in therapy, suggests that it is not a characteristic or a behavior that is expected or assumed outside of such professional settings.
The recent blooming of the concept in the business world, which forms a significant part of the human experience, ties in with the largely non-empathetic (or at least empathy neutral) approach of most business since the industrial revolution, where success is measured through what one can take rather than what one can give. That approach by its very nature is unlikely to have any sort of positive impact on the general human experience, and well-being. The detriment of this approach occurs at several levels. Not only does it reward the most selfish acts and focus very much on the shortest term gain, the focus on the self, and the promotion of the individuals desires over the greater good, create a downward spiral which leads to the ongoing exacerbation of inequality and human life satisfaction.
“explorations of empathy are becoming more common in the business world”
While this may be the current reality, it does not need to continue being the case. Conversations about, and explorations of empathy are becoming more common in the business world, and in the general media outside of the humanities and fiction.
Some businesses are trying to incorporate new ways of understanding what it means to be a good corporate citizen and more fundamentally what it means to be a good business. It is to be expected that much of the shift has been driven by the failures created of how many businesses are run today. The failure to effectively respond to the climate crisis, failure to shift away from damaging sources of pollution, and the general failure to deal with the significant negative externalities created by businesses focused only on financial growth and profitability.
However, it is always better to have something to move towards, rather than just something to move away from (the current way of doing things). We need to have a clear vision of the world that we want to have before we can know what we need to do to move towards it. This is where empathy plays it’s part. It is through empathy that we can cognitively understand what different people are going through, it is through emotional empathy that we can allow ourselves to feel what others feel, and it is through compassionate empathy that we feel compelled to move towards a world where everybody’s feelings of well-being are improved.
Having leaders to make their decisions not based purely on financial returns, or on measurable corporate growth, but rather on how their business and their decisions contribute to the greater good, is likely to not only create a better world for all of us, but also for the businesses and leaders that follow this approach.
It is important to note that empathetic leadership and serving the greater good are not in opposition to profit and growth but rather an essential part of what will allow sustainability in these aims and add significantly more human benefit in the process.