Monica Worline blogs @ThriveGlobal about compassion’s strength
March 30, 2017
Monica Worline, faculty affiliate at the Center for Positive Organizations, blogs for Thrive Global in “An Empty Gesture or True Compassion: Meaningful acts of compassion strengthen us, but empty gestures to the opposite.”
Highlighting the importance of meaningful, customized gestures in times of pain, Worline uses a scene from This Is Us as an example of an empty gesture that symbolizes “disregard and inauthenticity on the part of the organization.” In the example, Randall quits his job in response to his organization’s empty gesture, citing his need for more meaningful connections. Worline stresses the essential need for customized (personalized) gestures of caring. She states that “routinized responses can still be customized and meaningful.”
In Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations, Worline and co-author Jane Dutton, build a body of research and evidence to support the need for and benefits of compassion in organizations.