Empathy Training – Case Study IV

Empathy training is based on 3 main steps, which can be practiced naturally in everyday life and different situations. Actually, Empathy training can improve personal and professional relationships, and become a preferred lifestyle.

The 3 main steps of Empathy training:

1. Seek out new perspectives and experiences

“Putting yourself into someone else’s shoes” is difficult when you do not know enough about the other person. Start by learning about the other. Being curious about others, having honest conversations with them and learning about their lives expands your ability to be empathetic.

2. Take the chance to emotionally connect with people

To make an empathetic connection with someone, it must go both ways – simply listening to them does not forge this connection. Instead, when people open up to you about their feelings, view it as an opportunity for you to identify with them. Take the time to listen to them actively to understand where they are coming from without trying to problem solve right away. You might not have been in their exact position, but you can imagine or think back to a time where you had similar feelings and emotions.

Though it’s not easy to have conversations about negative emotions and situations, training yourself to do so when the opportunity arises will increase your emotional intelligence.

3. Acknowledge your biases

We all have innate biases, most commonly centred around our race, gender, age or other visible features. These biases curb our ability to empathize with others as they cause false perceptions, which in turn influences our actions. Such biases also make us less willing to try to empathize with people from different backgrounds or experiences.

Many of our biases are unconscious, but one way to learn what biases you hold is to take an unconscious bias quiz. This quiz was created by Project Implicit, a non-profit organization created by researchers at Harvard, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia. Once you are aware of your bias, you become more aware of yourself and others, creating empathy. 

Developing empathy doesn’t happen overnight, but takes practice, awareness and educating yourself on other people.