Experience empathy, don’t intellectualize it.
Empathy cannot be transmitted through a book or a lecture: “it has to be about construction, not simply instruction,” says Roots of Empathy’s Mary Gordon. It comes of feeling, intuition, and interpersonal connection. Lasting memories—the product of emotional connections rather than mere cognitive understanding—then become a vehicle for applying those lessons outside of the classroom setting.

Practice it.
“It’s not what you teach, it’s what you emphasize,” says Positive Coaching Alliance founder Jim Thompson. Lessons and experiences must be reinforced through continual practice and repetition.

IN INDIVIDUALS:

• Experience empathy, don’t intellectualize it.
• Practice it.
• Measure it.

IN SCHOOLS:

• Embed empathy across the curriculum.
• Make play the cornerstone of the school day.
• Activate changemaking. 

IN COMMUNITIES

• Train future leaders in systems-thinking

CULTURE | CREATE CONDITIONS FOR EMPATHY TO THRIVE

ECOSYSTEM | ESTABLISH INCENTIVES AND PLATFORMS TO PROPEL ACTION.