em·pa·thy | \ˈem-pə-thē \
- the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner
- the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it
The start of 2019 places us squarely in the 21st century – and at a time of tremendous political and social strife. So, how did we get here? Some have lamented the loss of empathy, which ultimately begs the question: was empathy a skill we ever mastered in the first place?
We at the Scattergood Foundation would argue no.
It’s time we make empathy a necessary skill for the 21st century workforce.
Check back this month for our weekly insights into how we build empathy.