DEI Committee March 2021 Blog

WGR's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Committee gathered during it’s March 9th Committee meeting to discuss Empathy in the Time of COVID-19. Darlene Nipper, CEO, of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, was our special guest and DEI Committee member Courtney Lang facilitated the conversation. The first issue discussed on the call was the question of empathy vs. compassion. These two concepts are related but not the same; compassion is defined as "the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering."  Darlene explained compassion as "a trembling of the heart in the face of another's experience." Similarly, empathy is defined as "our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person.” The main distinction between the two is that compassion involves a motivation to help or "relieve that suffering."

Darlene explained that empathy is often misunderstood because people think it requires having the same lived experiences when all we really need is the ability to relate to each other's emotions. To further explain this point, she provided an example of a safari and the fear she felt when seeing a lion. While not everyone she shared that story with has seen a wild lion, everyone has felt a sense of fear, allowing everyone to connect to her story. The same is true when people share different lived experiences, whether they are related to religion, race, career, or the other multitude of other things that make us unique. We will always have emotions and human feelings that can bring us together and allow us to express empathy for one another.

Another pathway to empathy is deep listening, which also improves connection. In this prolonged time of social distancing that we are all experiencing because of COVID-19, having connections is more important than ever. Darlene reminded us all to avoid distractions and focus on one another to truly connect. She provided a few helpful tips, some of which include turning off the self-view feature of your camera while on Zoom meetings to better focus on the speaker or using the speaker view versus the full grid. Connection in the workplace creates a deeper relationship and helps us see the humanity in one another and move beyond simply transactional relationships. Darlene shared the success she has had at Rockwood Leadership Institute by focusing on connections over tasks. Explaining how this prioritization on humanization and connection allows us to treat each other with much more kindness and care. Conversely,  the dehumanization of people makes it much easier to harm one another.

I invite you to learn more about the Rockwood Leadership Institute, where Darlene helps individuals identify their purpose and vision for their lives.  In addition, the following articles were referred to during the discussion:

• Perspectives | The Art of Medicine: Compassion in a Time of COVID-19: https://bit.ly/2OkjhzA
• New York Times | The Trouble with Empathy: https://nyti.ms/30Blrxd

Please join us for our next DEI Committee meeting on Tuesday, April 13th, where the discussion topic will focus on Colorism. I also invite you to join the WGR DEI Committee at a special Open Forum it will be hosting on Thursday, April 8th on Violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community.

We welcome all WGR members to join us each month at our DEI Committee Meetings! For more information on WGR’s DEI Committee, please reach out to dei.wgr@gmail.com.

This month’s blog is authored by DEI Committee Member and Lead Blogger Madisyn Rhone.