Is compassion part of life in your workplace? Compassionate people see suffering and desire to help alleviate. A recent article by Emma Seppala and another by Weng, Davidson, and colleagues at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds have spurred my thinking about compassion, specifically compassion in the workplace, in our organizations. Last year the Academy of Management Review focused the October issue on care and compassion in organizations. Guest editors Sara Rynes (University of Iowa), Jean Bartunek (Boston University), Jane Dutton (University of Michigan), and Joshua Margolis (Harvard University) wrote an outstanding and thought-provoking introduction to this issue. Here are some highlights, as I perceive them, from their introduction.

Compassion is timely. Suffering abounds – in the workplace, in our lives, in our communities, both due to natural causes and those caused by people. Internationally we are interdependent, ecologically, economically. In the past ten years research on compassion (e.g., the positive effects on well-being) and organizational collaborations (e.g., the Compassionate Action Network International) furthering care and compassion have grown. The authors credit Peter Frost of the University of British Columbia (now deceased) and his 1999 article “Why Compassion Counts!” for sparking the current emergence of interest in compassion among management scholars.

Compassion is timeless. It lies at the heart of world religions. Philosophers from the Greeks forward have debated compassion, with some (e.g., Plato, Descartes, Kant) “skeptical of compassion as a basis for decision making and taking action” (p. 506). Adam Smith, “patron saint of self-interest”, saw compassion as complimentary to self-interest and good for our survival as a species. Rynes and her co-authors concluded the research evidence is suggesting “other-centeredness and interconnectedness are central aspects of humanity” (p. 508).

For me the most meaningful aspects of this article are the questions asked or implied, or questions about which it made me think:

• Is compassion part of being a leader, a manager, and co-worker?
• Should compassion be a central value in more organizations, reflected in vision, mission and value statements?
• What happens to organizational culture when compassion is elevated to a more central role?
• Is it possible to have a compassionate culture in workplaces where people are hurt, suffer, sometimes with no fault to themselves, where there are disappointments, conflicts?
• “Do the dynamics of power and distress increase our insensitivity to the pain of the others?” (p. 519)
• What would it mean “to infuse care and compassion into the practice of management . . .? (p. 519)
  

My take-aways:

There is much research to be done. Do we have a valid, reliable instrument to measure compassion in the workplace?  Are there specific interventions that can make a difference, such as compassion training? Are there organizations that already are models of holding compassion as a core value? What do they look like? How successful are they?

And on an individual level. How compassionate am I toward my co-workers? Can I tell when they are suffering? Is there anything I can do to help? Is there anything my supervisor can do? How other-centered am I? How much am I interconnected with others? In my workplace? My community? My home? 


Frost, P. J. (1999). Why compassion counts! Journal of Management Inquiry, 8, 127-133.

Rynes, S. L., Bartunek, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Margolis, J. D. (2012). Care and compassion through an organizational lens: Opening up new possibilities. Academy of Management Review, 37 (4), 503-523.

Image of Adam Smith from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adam_Smith,_1723_-_1790._Political_economist_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Public domain: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/deed.en 

In a previous blog I discussed an excellent article by Emma Seppala on compassion. Seppala defined compassion as “the emotional response when perceiving suffering and involves an authentic desire to help” (p. 20) Being compassionate may buffer stress, increase our well-being, both psychologically and physically. One might think that being compassionate is just a personality trait. To the contrary, Seppala suggested compassion is a behavior – and that it can be trained. If so, compassion training in organizations may yield significant benefits (e.g., reduced health care costs; reduced absenteeism) and positively affect the lives of employees.

Research reported in the July issue of Psychological Science (a publication of the Association for Psychological Science) supports the contention that compassion can indeed be trained. Furthermore the research demonstrated that such training may actually affect neural systems in our brains that are related to our being more concerned with the welfare of others. Helen Weng and her co-authors concluded, “our findings support the possibility that compassion and altruism can be viewed as trainable skills rather than as stable traits” (p. 1179).

So how do you train compassion? In the study led by Weng and Richard Davidson, participants listened to a 30-minute guided meditation. They meditated with a script designed to develop compassionate thinking.  The meditation involved doing imaging exercises (e.g., picturing different people in your mind) and reciting phrases (such as “May you be free from this suffering”). Participants did this each day for two weeks.  Weng and her colleagues described this as “like training the compassion muscle, starting with the lightest weight of a loved one and working up to a heavier weight of a difficult person” (from supplemental material on-line available to APS members).  The meditation was adopted from Sharon Salzberg’s Lovingkindness Meditation: Learning to Love through Insight Meditation (1997). Such meditations are derived from Buddhist tradition. More information, an audio file, and an example script can be found on-line at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

My take-away:  I tried the meditation used in this study. I can see how this particular meditation, or similar, could result in changes in behavior.  And the benefits of meditation in stress reduction are well documented. Meditation is already part of several MBA programs and companies. Training compassionate behaviors is an interesting, promising area of research. But I would like to see a variety of effective training methods.

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Shackman, A. J., Stodola, D. E., Caldwell, J. Z. K., Olson, M. C., Rogers, G. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1171-1180.

Modification of image by Harald Hobbit.    http://www.flickr.com/photos/haraldhobbit/6203801807/
Permission:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

Steve Jobs was interviewed for "An Immigrant's Gift" on December 19, 1991, in Redwood City, California. Here is more of that interview  from the files of the Dr. Juran "An Immigrant's Gift" Archival Project, research and dissemination of information from the interviews conducted about Joseph Juran for the PBS Special, An Immigrant's Gift.

Here Jobs reflects on Joseph Juran and speculates about Juran's satisfaction:

STEVE JOBS:  . . .I think Joe Juran has clearly had those experiences [being criticized and listening to own drummer] and become very internally driven. And I think he felt the bedrock of his -- of the truth of his pursuits. And that's what kept him going. . . I think that the great satisfaction that he got from Japan did not end in the '50's. I think he probably looks at Japan as something that he helped nurture along. And as every decade has passed, he sees his ideas blossoming even more. So I'm sure he gets tremendous satisfaction from having injected a very important ingredient into the early post-war culture of Japan, and he probably sees that in, you know, in every branch and leaf of a fairly large tree. And I think what he's trying to do now is to make sure that he -- he gets that into the -- into the future culture of American industry as it rebuilds itself. And I think if he is successful, which I think he is on the verge of being, that in his last breath, he will feel comfortable, knowing in the decades to come, that his work will get recognition. 

My Take-away:  Steve Jobs is talking about Joseph Juran -- but it is easy to read into these sentiments and imagine Steve Jobs reflecting on his own "fairly large tree" -- make that an Apple tree -- and how he has shaped the world. 

Image of Steve Jobs in 2010 by Matt Buchanan. From: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_at_Apple_iPad_Event.jpg
Used with permission:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

From the files of the Dr. Juran "An Immigrant's Gift" Archival Project, research and dissemination of information from the interviews conducted about Joseph Juran for the PBS Special, An Immigrant's Gift. Here Dr. Juran talks about being an immigrant and the opportunity of America.  From interviews with Dr. Juran:

JOSEPH JURAN:  I tend to choke up when I think about the immigrants. And the -- in one sense, most important event in my life was my dad coming over here and then bringing us over. Look at what we avoided. We would have been dragged into that Holocaust somehow, and whether we would have survived it, is very speculative. And, of course, coming over here under those conditions, and seeing the opportunity as reality, my dad had six children. Every one of them ended up being able to hold their heads high. 

I literally read the Declaration of Independence from beginning to end (on the 4th of July).  It's in script form in the New York Times every 4th of July. I never get over the magnificence of that document. The thought that went into it and the truths that are in it. And they're so inspiring. And, of course, especially to an immigrant. I've gotten around to a fair number of countries, by now. Just about all those that are regarded as important, and quite a few that are not. And I don't know any of them in which, in terms of the practice -- adherence to those truths is practiced as it is here. We're in a wonderful country.


Image of the Statute of Liberty, ©JBallard, 2011

Given a national or international platform, how would you use it? I appreciate celebrities who use their platform to make a difference. In 2000 Katie Couric, who lost her husband to colon cancer, had a colonoscopy live on television. Afterwards colonoscopies increased significantly (see Cram et al.), which has been called the Couric effect. No doubt lives were saved.

One of the people I admire is Bono of the rock group U2. Since Live Aid in 1985, Bono has worked incessantly to make a difference, especially in debt ridden countries and in the fight against AIDS. Bono’s cry to help Africa brought the world’s and world leaders’ attention to the AIDS epidemic there. Families had to choose who would live and who would die because there were not enough drugs for all to live.

And so it was with great interest I watched an RTÉ One interview with Bono on Gay Byrne’s "The Meaning of Life" television series (which is on the web for 12 more days as of the date of this blog; not sure after that). It was broadcast on June 25. The interview was not about U2 per se but about Bono. He discussed growing up in a Protestant/Catholic marriage, his relationship with his father, his teenage years, the role Bob Geldof has played in his life, U2 as a business, activism, the importance of love over faith, and extensively and candidly discussed his spiritual beliefs.

Here are some highlights on topics that may be interest to readers of this blog. (Any errors in transcription are mine).

• On Business and Taxes: In 2006 U2 shifted its headquarters out of Ireland to save money on taxes. Bono discussed: “The shock horror moment here is U2 behaving as a business . . . Tax competitiveness is a central part of Irish economic life. . . We pay a lot of tax. But we are tax sensible. . . Why can’t U2 be tough in business.” 
  
• On Being Tough: “I am tough. I may sing from a very private and intimate place and I make art but I am tough minded and intellectually rigorous I hope.”

• On Contracts and Purpose: In the early 1980s, after U2’s first and widely acclaimed album, Bono and The Edge (U2 lead guitarist) approached the band’s manager, Paul McGuinness about quitting U2. They were part of a Christian community, Shalom, who felt rock ‘n roll was incompatible with trying to make a difference in a “broken world.” They told Paul McGuinness, “We’re done.”  McGuinness told them to ask God about commitments and breaking contracts. So they went on with a scheduled tour. Edge wrote “Sunday Bloody Sunday. Bono: “We started to realize that our music was the way we spoke to the world, these were prayers of a kind, and what are we doing hanging out with people who didn’t understand this.”

• On Activism: “I have one idea when it comes to activism. Don’t let it be a creation of the left; don’t leave the right out . . . why leave half out?”

• On Meeting with World Leaders: “Don’t take the obvious route. The meeting will be longer if you solve their problem.”

• On Making a Difference: When asked how the world has improved in the past 30 years, Bono cited the World Bank, 7256 fewer kids under five years of age dying every day. He sees the biggest problem now is corruption and the biggest need is transparency.

• Giving Credit: Bono talked about his meeting with George W. Bush and others. And he gave credit to George W. Bush for his leadership in fighting AIDS in Africa. “You have to say this, it’s the single largest ever amassing of resources against a single disease in the history of the planet  . . .  God bless America.”

• On Human Potential: “The miracle of just being in U2 is mad. We were the crappiest band and we were useless but we had this spirit between us, we found the best in each other, I think love if you really push it, what it's about, surely it is about realizing potential, isn’t it? It’s about realizing your own potential, and realizing somebody else’s potential, that’s the job of love and I think that’s what God wants from us, to realize your potential to be what you can possibly be and the greatest sadness to me on this Earth is the waste of human potential  . . . “

• On Integrity and Humility:  “Dignity is not what’s important, integrity’s important, and humility . . . Only a truly sound mind who has a clear view of the world and the universe and your place in it, can be humble . . .” 
  

Image of Bono from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bono_-_World_Economic_Forum_Annual_Meeting_2011.jpg
Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Moritz Hager
Permission: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

From the files of the Dr. Juran "An Immigrant's Gift" Archival Project, research and dissemination of information from the interviews conducted about Joseph Juran for the PBS Special, An Immigrant's Gift. This is part of an interview with Steve Jobs conducted on December 19, 1991, in Redwood City, California. I posted a shorter version of this excerpt on October 10, 2012. 

Here Jobs talks about customers' perceptions of quality and the nature of quality in products and services.

STEVE JOBS:  . . . Customers don't form their opinions on quality from marketing. They don't form their opinions on  quality from who won the Deming A ward, or who won the Baldrige Award. (People) form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products, or the services. And so one can spend enormous amounts of money on quality. One can win every quality award there is. And yet, if your products don't live up to it, customers will not keep that opinion for long in their minds. 

And so I think where we have to start is with our products and our services. Not with our marketing department. And we need to get back to the basics and go improve our products and services. 

Now, again, quality isn't just the product or the service; it's having the right product. You know, knowing where the market's going and having the most innovative products is just as much a part of quality as the quality of the construction of the product when you have it.

And I think what we're seeing is the quality leaders of today have integrated that quality technology well beyond their manufacturing, now going well into their sales and marketing and out as far as they can to touch the customer. And trying to create super-efficient processes back from the customer all the way through to the delivery of the end products so that they can have the most innovative products, understand the
customer needs fastest. . . 

My thoughts: I read the words, "quality isn't just the product or service; it's having the right product" and am just amazed.  Jobs said this before the iPhone, before the iPad, before the iPod, before iTunes. He had a  commitment to the "right product", to "the most innovative products", and he changed the world. We work together. We work collectively. But sometimes it comes down to a strong will, a relentless drive to excel. Steve Jobs understood quality.


Image of Steve Jobs from Acaben at http://www.flickr.com/photos/35034346178@N01/541326656
Free to share under the following license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/