The Science Behind Empathy- How Servant Leaders Master it
Have you ever had an experience where someone said "I know how it feels ...", and felt that they really meant it? Servant leaders must strive to understand and empathize with others in order to lead agile teams. It sounds simple, but is not easy. In this session, Ram Srinivasan will explore the brain science behind empathy and offer suggestions on how to develop this skill.
Outline/Structure of the Talk
This is an interactive talk/workshop, where some concepts are presented by the presenter and participants also will be pairing up with others in doing exercises/activities.
10 minutes - Introduction to Theory of Mind by playing Rock-Paper-Scissors
10 minutes - Challenges in guessing mental states/emotions of others - extending Rock Paper Scissors with a new game on emotions
5 minutes - Empathy - an introduction, the three aspects of empathy
10 minutes - Paired exercise - mirroring emotions (and debrief)
5 minutes - why we cannot "hide" our emotions,
5 minutes - exercise - the wandering mind and its impact on reading and reciprocating other person's emotions
10 minutes - debrief of the exercise - what you can do to be more self-aware
5 minutes - closing and Q& A
Learning Outcome
- Learn that empathy is not co-suffering or sympathy.
- Learn how your internal mental states contribute to empathizing with/not empathyzing with others
- Daily practices which will help you develop empathy
Target Audience
coaches, managers
Links
Was presented at PMI NYC Agile SIG - http://pminyc.org/content/science-behind-empathy-how-servant-leaders-master-it (The slides above were presented at PMI NYC, I have an updated version of the presentation that I will be using, if this talk is selected)
My other public talks - http://www.ramvasan.com/p/where-am-i-speaking.html
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