Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Denise RQ
Good evening.
My name is Greta.
I love my job!
I would also love to help each and every one of you
discover your own purpose at work and in life.
My name is Greta.
I hate my job!
I have no idea why you are all looking at me
or how you expect me to possibly help you with your own work!
I can't think about my job right now.
Actually, all I think about is my job.
Oh … I'm sorry.
I'm Greta.
I love my job; I think.
I'm so tired; I don't know what to think.
I'm getting desperate now.
Can you help me?
You may love your job, hate your job;, or just be tired from your job.
It is time for all of us to engage in a new conversation about our work,
and how we can make positive changes, together.
I am the world's first Chief Empathy Officer.
I'm here today because I believe
that this role plays an important part in this conversation.
A good place for us to start a conversation about transitions in work
is Frederic Laloux's pioneering book, "Reinventing organizations."
One of the things that really stood out for me in his book
is an employee survey conducted a few years ago
to find out how people feel at work everyday.
Those of you who are the lucky ones
to be sitting in the first, second, and half of the third circle,
you represent 30% of the people who feel engaged at work,
like our first Greta.
You love your job, and you feel are really thriving at work.
Unfortunately, for those of you sitting here in front of me,
life is not so good.
You represent around 40% of people
who feel either detached or actively disengaged at work,
like our second Greta.
You hate your job,
and you wonder whether you can survive much longer.
And unfortunately, those of you sitting up there
in the half of the third circle and fourth circle,
you represent 20% of the people who feel unsupported at work,
like our third Greta.
You are just tired from your job,
and you question whether the striving ever ends.
If you are anything like me, of course,
at some point, you'll have experienced
the full range of these feelings towards work,
and perhaps you continue to swing between each of them.
But the fact that so many people
feel either detached or unsupported at work
makes a strong case for us to engage in a new conversation about our work.
In some way or another,
work affects our lives and the lives of those we love.
Many of us here spend much of our time at work,
or commuting to and from it.
So given how much time and energy we invest in work,
I'd like to suggest that the conversation we share
could and should really have the intention
of finding ways for everyone to flourish in their work.
When I interviewed John Ehrenfeld,
a leading professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
writing about this theme,
he explained that flourishing
means not just growing or finding pleasure in life,
but really growing well and prospering, thriving and living life to the fullest.
He considers flourishing to be
the embrace of the highest purpose we could devote our lives to;
and in doing so, appreciating our interconnectedness with all life.
In my experience, flourishing also means growing together
- both with and towards one another.
In my work as the Chief Empathy Officer of Akasha Innovation,
I focus a lot on this concept of flourishing.
I work with young people to provide them with the tools and resources to flourish,
so that they can then work together
to create a better world for others to flourish in.
But this is not always easy, and I have learned many important lessons
from sharing the struggles and the setbacks
on their journeys towards flourishing.
I have seen the anxiety in the eyes of young people
about their future in the world, even before entering the workplace.
And I have witnessed the ongoing struggles
changemakers go through every day
once they embark upon a journey which is not what they expected.
These three examples warned me of the need
for a radical transformation in our workplace.
Each new generation starting to work offers another opportunity
for big questions to be asked and answered;
for big dreams to be imagined and fulfilled.
As this pursuit of happiness has been such an enduring feature of human life,
it is rather alarming to see just how few young people flourish today.
So, over the past few years,
I have become interested in - and committed to -
not only helping young people flourish
but also finding ways to transform organizations for this task.
I found that the most obvious barrier to flourishing at work
is detachment.
I'm sure you could all feel
how our second Greta's detachment led her to communicate
a very negative attitude towards her work.
The neuropsychologist, Dr Rick Hanson,
explains how our brains can shift modes to detach
when our three core needs of safety, satisfaction, and connection are not met.
The modern workplace can easily trigger our impulse
to detach and protect ourselves from our environment.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
We can change organizations
to meet our core need to feel safe and secure.
Just consider how job security and safe workspace
are becoming more widely appreciated.
We can also ensure that organizations meet our core need
to feel satisfied and appreciated at work.
New generations are increasingly more attracted to work
for organizations that are purpose- and values-led
and focus on intrinsic rewards,
than working for organizations that offer extrinsic rewards,
such as high salaries.
We could even transform organizations
to meet our core need to feel cared for and connected.
However, many organizations today neglect this basic need for connection
and can even discourage the fostering of genuine and meaningful relationships,
all in the name of "professionalism."
Recent breakthroughs in neurophysiology
reveal the potential problems
when organizations are neither willing nor able to foster meaningful connections.
Matthew Lieberman has observed how our drive for survival
has shaped our evolution to be able to think as social creatures.
So in a way, our brains are hardwired
to experience social disconnection like physical pain.
If social disconnection is sustained over long periods of time,
it can severely harm our wellbeing.
So disconnection at work is an issue we need to address.
I know it may seem trivial,
when compared to the major crises we are facing around the world,
but disconnection at work can lead to detachment,
detachment can prevent individual workers from flourishing,
and a languishing workforce can do little to support the flourishing of others,
let alone of all life on Earth.
Connection is an important ingredient
that is often neglected and forgotten at work,
but alone, I am afraid, it is not enough to guarantee flourishing.
Our third Greta has a sense of purpose and a community she is connected to.
But her inability to cope with workload
inhibits any chance for her to flourish in her job.
I have seen how compassion for others
really motivates the young changemakers I work with;
and yet, many still languish as they become overwhelmed
by the sheer amount of the good work left undone.
The strong desire to make an impact, to make a positive change in the world,
leaves them open to emotional exhaustion and physical burnout.
So organizations must create positions and processes
to protect and support anyone who is vulnerable to these dangers.
Active care is even more important
when a life purpose to work for positive change
renders the traditional work-life balance meaningless.
The real danger for changemaker
is that the emotional and physical demands of working life,
if left unchecked, can soon spill over
and undermine health and wellbeing in life and at home.
My own experience of burnout
led me on a journey to discover how to reverse this
and how to make sure that home life could be spread into our work.
An ideal home is where we feel comfortable.
It is where we feel safe.
It is where we feel accepted.
It is where we can be ourselves.
So we need organisations
that can help make people feel at home, for a few hours or a lifetime,
as well as connected to their own purpose
and supported when compassion leads them to reach out to others.
Ultimately, we need organisations where we can belong.
This journey brought me to the conclusion
that I could contribute to creating new organisations
that can support individual and collective flourishing
by reinventing one specific role – my own.
A Chief Executive Officer is tasked
with leading and managing organisations to success.
However, I created the position of Chief Empathy Officer
to ensure instead that our organization
is a home that belongs to everyone and where everyone belongs.
Empathy lies at the core need and core ability to connect to others.
The word comes from the German "Einfühlung,"
meaning "feeling into,"
Empathy then is to feel into the life of another
and use that understanding to guide our actions.
We empathise when we walk in the shoes of others,
we empathise when we cross over the bridge that separates them from us;
we empathise when we see the world from their perspective.
And it is this ability to empathise
that has helped our ancestors bond for survival and flourish together.
I expect a fair few people to roll their eyes or shake their heads
at the idea that leaders should focus
on cultivating empathy within their organisations.
I don't question how much CEOs and other traditional leaders
already have on their plate.
I do not claim that there is no longer a place for them within new organisations.
I do question whether we can help people flourish at work
without changing organisations and how they are led.
I do claim that an evolution in the role of the CEO
can actually open up radical possibilities
to transform organisations into homes that offer a real sense of belonging.
As Lao Tzu warns us,
"If we do not change direction, we may end up where we are heading."
So I invite others to join me
in taking on a role as Chief Empathy Officers
and create more organisations
where people can feel like an important part of the whole.
The beauty of this invitation
is that you don't need to be a CEO already;
creating an inclusive home
is a position of leadership from anywhere within an organization.
It could be an unofficial title that you assume yourself
or bestow on someone else.
There is no single recipe for nurturing empathy either.
There are a number of practices that you can explore
to find your own unique path towards becoming a Chief Empathy Officer.
Last year, I interviewed Roman Krznaric,
a leading expert on empathy and the founder of the Empathy Museum.
He suggested one practice
that is simple enough for everyone to try over the next few days.
You can cultivate curiosity and empathy
by just finding time to have a conversation with a stranger.
Just look for anyone you would not normally talk to,
someone outside your normal experience,
and invite them to join you in conversation.
If you don't know how to start, simply ask,
"What was the most surprising thing that happened to you this week?"
and then listen.
Ask questions,
"What was it like?", "How did you feel?" or simply, "What else?"
and really try to get a sense of the being
behind the eyes of the other person.
Have the courage to talk about the things that really matter in life:
family, religion, ambition, hopes, fears, dreams.
Let them share their story
and just be willing to receive whatever they have to say.
I believe that a community of Chief Empathy Officers
would be able to tap
into what the Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh calls
"the infinite creative potential to change the world
through a union of mind and heart."
I don't know where this path will lead us.
Who can tell?
But I do know about the immediate changes that expanding our circle of empathy
would bring about in our lives, our organisations, and in the whole world.
For in the end, our journey is one of self-transformation
to rediscover what it means to be human
and what it means to act together
to create a world for all life to flourish in.
A transition to embrace the role of the Chief Empathy Officer
can encourage us to make the leap in consciousness
that is needed to craft resilient organisations
that have human and natural flourishing at the heart of their missions.
So, as the world's first - hopefully not last - Chief Empathy Officer
I'd like to invite you to become a Chief Empathy Officer
in your own organisations, even in your own families and communities.
Act as local hosts of a world
that belongs to everyone and where everyone belongs.
Together, we can create a world of flourishing.
Thank you.
(Applause)