Lisa Earle McLeod - Empathy and Innovation: An Unexpected Pairing That Will Solve any Problem

According to Jeremy Rifkin (The Empathic Civilization), empathy is the future of our human enterprise, or we will have no future at all. In this article, Lisa McLeod suggests that empathy and innovation can solve a lot of our problems. I think she has a point.

Men have tended to lead with power and authority (yes, huge generalization), not with empathy - but McLeod suggests that empathy allows us to understand problems better and, therefore, to find better solutions.

I would also argue that this approach allows us to function better in relationships. Despite claims to the contrary (mostly in popular culture), men are equally as good at empathy as women, we just have not be encouraged as much to develop that skill.

Empathy and Innovation: An Unexpected Pairing That Will Solve any Problem

Lisa Earle McLeod - Keynote speaker and author, 'The Triangle of Truth'

Q: What do world hunger and bad customer service have in common?

A: The secret to solving them both is empathy and innovation.

Empathy and innovation seem like an unlikely pairing, but together, they're the secret to solving just about everything.

Here's why. You have to care about a problem before you're motivated to solve it. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone because his wife was deaf and he wanted to help those who couldn't hear.

Empathy for his wife ignited the innovation.

The challenge is, everyone wants to be innovative; it's powerful. But empathy sounds like some wimpy thing your mother would lecture you about.

Innovation is sexy. Empathy isn't.

Can you imagine a company ad campaign with the slogan "We're the industry leader in empathy?"

Unless they ran a chain of funeral homes, very few would embrace the mantra. But that's a real shame because empathy is a huge competitive advantage.

Read the whole article.

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Web site -- www.TriangleofTruth.com