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Culture of Empathy Builder: Keiko Krahnke
http://j.mp/11X7OBd

Keiko Krahnke & Edwin Rutsch: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Business

Keiko Krahnke is Associate Professor of Management; Business Communications at University of Northern Colorado in the Montfort College of Business. Areas of research interests include spirituality and business, systems thinking, Appreciative Inquiry, and corporate citizenship.  

 She is an co-editor of the book, Organizing through Empathy. This book challenges the existing paradigm of capitalism by providing scientific evidence and empirical data that empathy is the most important organizing mechanism.

 

Currently Keiko is interested in learning about human consciousness and teaching empathy and compassion. She says, Empathy is wholeness and knowing that we are all part of one field and are interconnected. The opposite of Empathy is being trapped in narcissism.
Sub Conferences:
Education and Workplace

 

 

Keiko Krahnke & Edwin Rutsch: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Business

 

(Video Transcriptions: If you would like to take empathic action and create a transcription of this video, 
check the volunteers page. The transcriptions will make it easier for other viewers to quickly see the content of this video.)

 

 

Organizing through Empathy
Editors Kathryn Pavlovich and Keiko Krahnke
(Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society)

   

"Empathy dissolves the boundaries between self and others, and feelings of altruism towards others are activated. This process results in more compassionate and caring contexts, as well as helping others in times of suffering. This book provides evidence from neuroscience and quantum physics that it is empathy that connects humanity, and that this awareness can create a more just society. It extends interest in values-based management, exploring the intellectual, physical, ecological, spiritual and aesthetic well-being of organizations and society rather than the more common management principles of maximizing profit and efficiency.

This book challenges the existing paradigm of capitalism by providing scientific evidence and empirical data that empathy is the most important organizing mechanism. The book is unique in that it provides a comprehensive review of the transformational qualities of empathy in personal, organizational and local contexts. Integrating an understanding based upon scientific studies of why the fields of positive psychology and organizational scholarship are important, it examines the evidence from neuroscience and presents leading-edge studies from quantum physics with implications for the organizational field. Together the chapters in this book attempt to demonstrate how empathy helps in the reduction of human suffering and the creation of a more just society."


Introduction:
Editors Kathryn Pavlovich and Keiko Krahnke

Organizing through Empathy: Introduction: Kathryn Pavlovich, Keiko Krahnke and Edwin Rutsch

Kathryn Pavlovich is Associate Professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has a special interest in conscious capitalism, enterprise, self-leadership, ethics and spirituality.

Keiko Krahnke is Associate Professor at the University of Northern Colorado. She has research interest in empathy, systems thinking, ethics, and spirituality.

In this interview, editors Kathryn Pavlovich and Keiko Krahnke  give a broad overview of the book and the individual chapters.

Organizing through Empathy. "This book challenges the existing paradigm of capitalism by providing scientific evidence and empirical data that empathy is the most important organizing mechanism.... Empathy dissolves the boundaries between self and others, and feelings of  altruism towards others are activated. This process results in more compassionate and caring contexts, as well as helping others in times of suffering. This book  provides evidence from neuroscience and quantum physics that it is empathy that connects humanity, and that this awareness can create a more just society.

Sub Conferences: Workplace and Science

  • Overview of the Book

  • Contemplative Approaches

  • Applied Empathy

    • Empathy and Leadership

    • Empathy and Decision Making

    • Empathy in Context

  • A Systems Approach

Organizing through Empathy: Book Introduction: Kathryn Pavlovich, Keiko Krahnke and Edwin Rutsch

 

 

 

Part 1. Contemplative Approaches to Empathy 

1. Consciousness, Empathy and the Brain
     Dennis P. Heaton and Fred Travis

  • Transcendence and Empathy

  • Review of Research on the Transcendental meditation Technique

  • Consciousness and Connectedness

  • Field Effects of Meditation and Collective Consciousness

  • Conclusion



 
2. The Source of Empathy in Our Lives:
An Explanatory Journey Into the Realm of Spirituality

   Dunia Harajli Berry and Vassili Joannidès

  • Introduction

  • Interpersonal Attunement from a Spiritual Perspective

  • Intrapersonal Attunement

    • Intrapersonal Attunement from a Spiritual Perspective

    •  Meditative Practices

    •  Intrapersonal Attunement from a Religious Perspective

  • Relational Safety

    • Relational Safety from a Spiritual Perspective

    •  Relational Safety from a Religious Perspective

  • Shared Narratives

    •  Shared Narratives from a Religious Perspective

  • Empathy and Spirituality

  • Concluding Thoughts



 
3. Empathy, Self-Other Differentiation and Mindfulness Training
      Paul W. B. Atkins
 

  • Introduction

  • The Development of a Sense of Self and other and its implications for empathy

  • Self-as-Content and other-as-content:

  • Self-as-Process: The Knowing Self

  • Self-as-Content: The Transcendent Self

  • Interventions to Enhance Empathy

  • Mindfulness and Meditations are Associated with Enhanced Empathy

  • Why Does Mindfulness Training Improve Empathy?

    • Mindfulness Creates a More Flexible Relationship to Content

    • Mindfulness enhances Noticing and self regulation of process

    • Mindfulness Creates a Sence of Self Beyond Threat

  • Conclusion


4. A Conceptione  Joanna Tweedy  - Poem

 


Part 2 A. Applied Approaches to Empathy: Leadership 

5. Working Through the Past: How Personal History Influences Leaders’ Emotions and the Capacity for Empathy
   Veronika Kisfalvi
 

  • Introduction

  • Research on Leadership Effectiveness, Emotions, and EI in Organizations

  • Emotions and their Roots

  • Ben Levitsky, Careful Gambler

  • Implications for Developing Emotional Competences


6. Empathy: A Leadership Quintessential
   Samuel Natale, Anthony Libertella and Coroline Doran
 

  • Introduction

  • The Nature Of Empathy

  • Leaders Personified

    • A.G. Lafley: Empathic Engagement for Innovation

    • Meg Witman: Engaged Action-Oriented

    • Pete Carroll: Empathy a continuous Learning Process

    • Jack Mitchell: Customer-centric Passion

  • Lessons Learned

  • Listening: The Third Ear

  • Financial Myths Debunked

  • The Moral Compass: Building Community

  • Organizational Restructuring: Institutional Imperatives

  • Empathy: Teachable Dimension

  • Conclsion

 

Part 2 B. Applied Approaches to Empathy: Decision Making 

7. Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: The Role of Empathy 
      Emmanuelle Patricia Kleinlogel and Joerg Dietz
 

  • Introduction

  • Definitions of Empathy

  • The Positive Side of Empathy in Ethical Decision Making

    • The Social Psychological View of Empathy

    • The moral Virtue View of Empathy

    • Empirical Examples

      • Example 1

      • Example 2

      • Example 3

      • Example 4

      • Summary

    • The Negative Side Of Empathy in Ethical Decision Making

      • Empathy Versus Personal Distress

      • Empathy and Favoritism

      • Malicious Empathy

      • The Manipulation of Empathy by a Target

      • Empirical Examples

        • Example 1: Empathy in Distress and Selfish Behaviour

        • Example 2: Empathy and Favoritism

        • Example 3: Empathy and the State of The Targeted Person

      • Summary

  • Conclusion

    • Limitations in the Research on Empathy

    • Discussion


8. The ACES Decision-Making Technique as a Reframing Tool for Increasing Empathy 
      Larry Pate and Traci Shoblom
 

  • Introduction

  • Literature Review

  • Emotional Contagion

  • Cognitive Perspective Taking

  • Prosocial Behavior

  • Self-Awareness

  • Integrating the four perspectives

  • A Working Model of Empathy

  • The ACES Decision-Making Technique

  • Expected Outcomes

  • Teaching Empathy

  • Aces in Real Time

Part 2 C. Applied Approaches to Empathy: Contextual 

9. Predicting Empathy in Medical Students and Doctors 
    Don Munro, David Powis and Miles Bore
 

  • Introduction

  • Empathy in Medicine

  • The Measurement of Empathy

  • Empathy in Medical Students

  • Role Models

  • Emotional Intelligence

  • Narcissism

  • Morality and Empathy

  • Empathic Behaviors

  • Overview and Conclusion


10. The Caring Climate: How Sport Environments Can Develop Empathy in Young People    Lori A. Gano-Overway

Organizing through Empathy: Chp. 10: by Lori A. Gano-Overway Interviewed by Edwin Rutsch
The Caring Climate: How Sport Environments Can Develop Empathy in Young People 

Lori A. Gano-Overway is Associate Professor in Health and Exercise Science interested in the psychosocial aspects of physical activity.  She teaches sport psychology, health and exercise psychology, motor behavior, research methods, and administration of sport and physical education programs

Organizing through Empathy. "This book challenges the existing paradigm of capitalism by providing scientific evidence and empirical data that empathy is the most important organizing mechanism."

 "By developing empathy, youth learn to attend to emotional cues, listen, become sensitive to others, understand another's perspective, and read the needs of others, which allows them to work and live with others in community and act with compassion toward others' needs."  
Sub Conferences: Workplace and Science

  • Introduction

  • Caring Relation

  • African Ethic of Ubuntu

  • Creating a Caring Climate

    • Establishing Caring Interpersonal Relationships

    • Nurturing Care in Athletes

    • Developing a Caring Team

    • Developing the Caring Community

    • Building Solidarity and Harmony

    • Promoting Inclusion and Acceptance

    • Emphasizing Consensus Building and Community  Decision Making

  • Conclusion


Organizing through Empathy: Chp. 10: The Caring Climate:
How Sport Environments Can Develop Empathy in Young People 

 

 


11. Ad Floridam - Joanna Tweedy - Poem



12. Transcendent Empathy: the Ability to See the Larger System 
    Peter Senge and Keiko Krahnke

Organizing through Empathy: Chp. 12 by Peter Senge and Keiko Krahnke

Transcendent Empathy: The Ability to See the Larger System

Keiko Krahnke is Associate Professor of Management; Business Communications at University of Northern Colorado in the Montfort College of Business. Areas of research interests include spirituality and business, systems thinking, Appreciative Inquiry, and corporate citizenship.

 

Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

"We suggest that empathy is something broader than knowing or feeling another's psychological or emotional state. The fundamental concept of empathy is to care about another as if you were in the shoes of the other. Our purpose here is to expand this caring to the larger living systems of which we are part. We propose the notion of "transcendent empathy" as the ability to see these larger systems in time and space, to move beyond mere intellectual understanding to embrace "system sensing" as a doorway to other awareness of what exists now and to future possibilities."
Sub Conferences: Workplace and Science

  • Introduction

  • Need for Understanding A System:

    • Towards Seeing Processes, Patterns and Wholes

    • Reflection and Seeing the Real Issues Beyond the Symptoms

  • Transcendent Empathy: Empathy As the ability to See the Larger System

    • How Wide Can Out Circle of Compassion Spread - Empathy as Biosphere Consciousness

    • Empathy as the Recognition That We Co create the World

    • Empathy as the Ability to See Connections across Time

    • Empathy as Organizational Culture

  • Rethinking Human Nature and the Concept of Self

  • Cultivating Transcendent Empathy

Organizing through Empathy: Chp. 12 Transcendent Empathy: the Ability to See the Larger System

 

 

Teaching and Learning Transcendent Empathy
Empathy is often referred to as an emotional or cognitive state where we experience another's experience or plight. As we face complex challenges, the ability fo recognize the interconnectedness and interdependencies in human organizations and society is critical.

 

 What is required is a type of empathy to be able to see and sense a larger system within which we are acting, what we call transcendent empathy. In this forum, we will discuss what transcendent empathy is and how we can learn and teach it. Transcendent empathy may be the next invisible hand that will save humanity.

 

 

 

Symposium: Empathy, Consciousness, and Transcendence
Keiko Krahnke
Kathryn Pavlovich

In this symposium, we will explore “empathy” from various perspectives. Empathy is a mechanism for creating a shared existence and thus moves the focus from I to WE. The discovery of the mirror neurons has opened a window to recognizing our fundamental capacity to care about another. Although “empathy” has recently received more attention academically, further research and exploration are needed to better understand the implications of empathy in organizations, society, and in the global community. The role of empathy in decision making, spirituality and consciousness, and systemic change will be discussed.

 


Teaching and Learning Transcendent Empathy
"Empathy is often referred to as an emotional or cognitive state where we experience another’s experience or plight. As we face complex challenges, the ability to recognize the interconnectedness and interdependencies in human organizations and society is critical. What is required is a type of empathy to be able to see and sense a larger system within which we are acting, what we call transcendent empathy. In this forum, we will discuss what transcendent empathy is and how we can learn and teach it.

 

Transcendent empathy may be the next invisible hand that will save humanity. The content of this forum is derived from a book chapter that the presenter has co-authored with Peter Senge. "


 

 

(2012) Empathy, Connectedness and Organisation - Kathryn Pavlovich & Keiko Krahnke

"In this paper, we conceptually explore the role of empathy as a connectedness organising mechanism. We expand ideas underlying positive organisational scholarship and examine leading-edge studies from neuroscience and quantum physics that give support to our claims. The perspective we propose has profound implications regarding how we organise and how we manage.

 

First, we argue that empathy enhances connectedness through the unconscious sharing of neuro-pathways that dissolves the barriers between self and other. This sharing encourages the integration of affective and cognitive consciousness which facilitates the ability to find common ground for solution building.

 

 Second, empathy enhances connectedness through altruistic action. In giving to others, feelings of joy and harmony are activated. This in turn allows personal freedom to be enriched and transcendence from the rational ego-self is reduced to develop a more expansive, integrated and enlightened state underlying connectedness.

 

Finally, empathy enhances connectedness which results in sharing the quantum field of coherence where there is little separation between self and other. This means living beyond self-interest in a coherent world based upon interdependent wholeness rather than atomization and separation. Empathy allows us to find that state of coherent connectedness."


 

Empathy, Connectedness and Organisation. 
In this paper, we conceptually explore the role of empathy as a connectedness organising mechanism. We expand ideas underlying positive organisational scholarship and examine leading-edge studies from neuroscience and quantum physics that give support to our claims. The perspective we propose has profound implications regarding how we organise and how we manage.


 

Four Week Series: Pattie Porter (The Texas Conflict Coach) Interviews Edwin Rutsch & Keiko Krahnke
    4. Building a Culture of Empathy in the Business World and Beyond  -  Listen to Podcast  -  See Video

 In our final episode of the series Conflict and Empathy: Where Has Empathy and Compassion Gone?  Keiko Krahnke from the University of  Colorado will join me and Edwin Rutsch, Center for Building a Culture of Empathy to discuss how do we foster empathy in a business, work and  beyond?   We will also look at the larger social systems and see how we can build a truly global culture of empathy.

How do we foster empathy in business, work and beyond? Part 4


Questions

  • Last episode we talked a great deal about building empathy by starting with the family first. But what about the business world? I happened to mention our series to someone in the business world and their response was ‘does it even have a place in business?’ Let’s start there.

  • Given what feels like a lack of empathy and compassion in the workplace, how does a leader even begin to address this in their organization?

    • How can employees begin to take ownership of building empathy and compassion in their workplace?

  • How do we go “beyond” and building a global culture of empathy?

    • What can global citizens do to support and do their part?

    • How can each of us cultivate empathy in our daily lives?
       

 



 

 

 


Comments

Empathy is wholeness.
 

Empathy is knowing that we are all part of one field and are interconnected. It’s not about duality – good or bad, right or wrong, us or them. We have created a world of duality (or have been misled to believe that that is the way things are), and we need to unlearn this
 

 Empathy is about understanding the whole system and inter-relationships instead of only looking at parts. We tend to only look at our immediate part and react and blame others instead of understanding relationships and patterns. Whole individuals would help create whole communities, whole communities would help create whole countries, and whole countries would help create a whole global community.
 

Empathy is about bridging the disconnect and widening the circle of compassion. How can we have empathy for our friends and families but hate people who are labeled to be our enemies? How can we love our dogs but eat pigs and cows?
 

Each of us can learn to love and respect ourselves properly. Know who we are (beyond feelings and personalities). Without the foundation of knowing who we are first, empathy may manifest in negative outcomes.
 

Empathy is a natural part of human spiritual/consciousness development. In order to create a culture of empathy, we need to learn to learn differently, teach differently, and know differently.
 

We must teach our children better. We need to show them better role models.
 

Opposite of Empathy. Trapped in narcissism.
 

 

Notes:


Organizing through Empathy
Benefits of Empathy

  • Empathy as an Organizing Mechanism

    • Benefit Note:  holds society together

    • Benefit Note: important for finding new ways of being

  • Empathy Enhances Prosocial Behaviour

    • Benefit Note: Enhances Prosocial Behaviour

  • Empathy as Shared Experience

    • Benefit Note: Empathy moves us from I to we

  • Empathy helps in the reduction of human suffering

  • Empathy creates a more just society.

 

Presentations

 

2013: Empathy, consciousness, and transcendence
Academy of Management
Orlando, Florida

2013: Empathy and leadership
Academy of Management
Orlando, Florida


2013: Transcendent empathy (Faculty Forum)
Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
Greeley, Colorado

 

2011: Empathy, connectedness and organization
Academy of Management
San Antonio, Texas

 

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