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
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"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
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.
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
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
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.
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. "
"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.
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.
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.
