Each day, as a way to start out in as positive a mindset as possible, I read an e-mail from a service known as "Daily Good". It's usually a quick quote, and a story about some positive, altruistic deed that someone has done somewhere in the world.
I find it inspiring and motivating to read about people who are choosing to make a positive difference. This need to make a positive difference is, in large part, why the folks at New & Improved work to help individuals and organizations improve their creativity and problem solving skills. Now here's the thing:
Imagination is what makes empathy possible....
I was thinking about what it takes to be compassionate, and realized that compassion arises out of empathy. Empathy arises out of the ability to imagine ourselves in the situation of another, and perhaps to imagine ourselves experiencing the positive that comes from bing helped. We experience the "other" as if the other was "I".
So, at least in part, imagination is what makes empathy possible.
Well then. What might be all he ways to improve imaginative skills? Drum-role please....
The core work of improving personal creativity does exactly that. Cool! So, as each of us works to improve our own creative skill set, and as we work to help others do the same, we are doing the fundamental work of increasing empathy and compassion. With enough compassion (accompanied by perhaps a little courage) comes the urge to act. To make things better. To make a positive change in the world. Cool.
Yup, improve your personal innovation quotient in service of your wage earning work. But also know this, you're increasing your ability to think as and experience as the other person does. Good news, that, because this is the real key to beginning to creatively solve the worlds gnarly problems. And get along better at the same time. Rodney King would be proud.
Comments