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I felt that needed a a bit of unpacking and perhaps some advice to people entering our industry where these phases seem to be bandied about without too much reflection beyond the attempted manipulation that will likely follow.
Empathy is at the very root of how we operate as a species, its hard wired as are the other two pillars of primate behaviour, authenticity and reciprocity. They are the glue that’s holds us together and makes us as successful as we are.
Targeting empathy and making it selective by definition, undermines authenticity and if you don’t have that then reciprocity fails very shortly thereafter, as does social cohesion. A few basics from Jane Goodall’s observations of chimps in the wild if memory serves.
We feel this as much as a gut instinct as anything else. So any advice would be along the lines of trusting those instincts and thinking carefully about your place with people or in an organisation when they are triggered.
I’d suggest any organisation peddling this kind of approach is probably one to avoid. And for those organisations - if the chimps can see though it most bankers should be able to as well.
If you have empathy, it’s a pretty blanket thing which doesn’t particularly lend itself to targeting – if you don’t then the outcomes for people around you are generally not very positive (although you might hit some short term numbers).
