“If you ask people to describe what empathy means, you’re likely to hear words such as understanding, sympathy, compassion, responsiveness, identity, recognition, consideration, thoughtfulness, kindness, concern, sensitivity, flexibility and care.” In many ways this perceived lack of empathy is a lot like workforce performance…not what we do to ensure it, but what is not done to enable it.
This is a true story about changing the paradigm in the head and heart of someone who believed training was the best solution to drive performance. This person is my wife, a long-term medical professional with many years of training, both delivering and receiving, during her career; a tough audience to be sure. My approach was spur-of-the-moment and turned out to be an unplanned dry run for an upcoming breakout session at a performance support conference. Shock and awe ruled the day. Sometimes you cannot break a paradigm, you must blow it up…with a chorizo sausage.
This post is in response to a question posed on the POINT-of-WORK Performance Support Solutions networking group on LinkedIn by Rebecca Everett. Feel free to join in the exchange by joining the group.