Training Empathy

Photo Credit: Burning Man 2017.

Empathy: Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. “The ability to walk in another’s shoes”

Empathy is a common expectation in police work yet the intentional development of it is often abandoned for lack of know-how. Research by Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond (Everhart, Elliott, Pelco, Westin, Briones, Peron 2016) reveals that not only is it possible to develop empathy, it’s not all that difficult.

In order to develop empathy, our compassion and perspective taking abilities have to be activated. The researchers give five recommendations of methods to activate empathy. While their emphasis is on young students in the classroom, this article is written with law enforcement trainers in mind and it adapts their findings for that audience. Empathy is a skill and skills are trainable.

5 ways to activate empathy during training

1. Facilitate experiential opportunities that activate empathy.

Encourage learners to observe the emotional experiences of others. The importance of this cannot be understated. Adult learners are often inhibited by perceptual barriers that prevent from fully experiencing and processing their own emotions, let alone the emotions of others. Facilitators need to be observant for emotional reactions among their learners and acknowledge them. To develop Emotional Intelligence (EQ), the adult learner needs to be given the safety and freedom to explore emotions. The facilitator should foster an environment that encourages learners to learn about the people around them, particularly people they wouldn’t normally associate with. Exploring world-views different than our own can activate empathy. Learning about others often begins in the cognitive domain as one works to understand the another’s perspectives. However, as an authentic relationship grows between them they transition from cognitive, perspective taking toward emotion and compassion and the affective domain is activated. Learning in the affective domain leads to learners developing a personal connection with others. This can only be accomplished in a training environment that fosters and enables emotional safety required to activate empathy. Lastly, trainers and facilitators need to inject opportunities to challenge deeply held beliefs and perceptions. One of my favorite expressions is, “just outside of our comfort zone is where the magic happens.” We must experience cognitive dissonance in order to develop emotionally. Our values must be challenged in order to truly commit to them and understand their meaning in our life. Encourage adult learners to, live beyond their comfort zone.

2. Incorporate empathy into reflection.

After Action Reviews (AAR) are an important part of learning and development (Willis, 2017). I use a variation of the CLEAR method developed by John Bostain from Command Presence (Bostain, 2017). During AARs we reflect on Communication, Legal Authority, Empathy, Adaptive Decision Making, and Risk Mitigation. By intentionally adding Empathy (or in the original model, Emotional Intelligence) it becomes part of the organizational culture to reflect on it. Adult learners need time, freedom, and safety to deeply and emotionally reflect in order to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. The adult learner is often uncomfortable when put on the spot with the question, “so… how did that make you feel…?” But truth be told, that is precisely what they need in order to activate empathy and be a more emotionally intelligent team member. Trainers committed to developing empathy need to be intentional about the reflective opportunities provided to an adult learner. Facilitators should also ask questions that cause reflection to continue into the future. Leverage meta-cognitionand the Zeigarnik effect to connect the current experience to a realization in the future. Leave them with the question, “How do you see yourself performing this task in the future when you have to do it again?”

3. Training empathy begins with the “Empathy Tool Box”

Trainers need to be exemplars of behaviors for others to emulate. One method of doing this is by modeling and training what the researchers dubbed as, ‘the empathy toolbox’. This is a set of skills to have the students consider and actively develop through exercises and real life events that the subsequently reflected upon that are collectively known as the ‘empathy toolbox’. These are:

Use active and effective listening skills
Develop your cultural competence and bias awareness
Embrace chaos and complexity
Embrace the suck and be vulnerable (Brown, 2012)

4. Assess and reimagine learning environment culture and design.

Consider arranging classrooms into small groups instead of the traditional rows or the more progressive U-Shape. These learning environments tend to put emphasis on the trainer and the media instead of fellow participants. Even the U-shape, which has long been viewed as the collaborative preference places a barrier and safety zone between participants and limits interaction and connection to other learners. By grouping learners into small teams the trainer places the emphasis on the individual and their fellow learners – where ownership of learning actually resides.

5. Add empathy to the learning objectives/outcomes.

We measure what matters. If we truly care about developing empathy and emotional intelligence we’ll figure out ways to measure it. Consider including language such as “Demonstrate Empathy While [insert task here]” as an outcome to any training task. While attending the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) we were continuously evaluated by our small group leaders (SGLs) on our interpersonal skills using the Interpersonal Skills Development Evaluation (ISDE). This tool gave the instructors the ability to objectively evaluate our ability to interact with others.

A final thought…

Empathy can be developed but it doesn’t just happen. We must be intentional and meaningful in our efforts to create space and opportunity where learners can try new things. Many adult learners tell me during workshops that, “personal feelings and emotions have no place at work and should be left at home.” First, that’s simply not possible. Our emotions go with us, everywhere we go. Second, if we truly want to develop an empathetic workforce we are obligated to foster environments where each employee / team member feels safe and compelled to learn. As an added bonus, the empathy skills developed on the job are transferable to all aspects of our lives.

References

Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. New York: Gotham Books, 2012.

Bostain, John. It’s Time to Think CLEAR About Officer/Citizen Encounters. February 2017. http://commandpresence.net/time-think-clear-officercitizen-encounters/

Everhart, R. S., Elliott, K., Pelco, L. E., Westin, D., Briones, R., Peron, E., & associates. March 2016. Empathy Activators: Teaching tools for enhancing empathy development in service-learning classes. Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Richmond, Richmond, VA. Retrieved from Virginia Commonwealth University, Scholars Compass, Division of Community Engagement Resources: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/community_resources/

Willis, Joseph. 10 Reasons to Conduct After Action Reviews: https://teamonenetwork.com/2017/03/02/10-reasons-to-conduct-after-action-reviews/

Training Empathy