October 16, 2024
Create a Culture of Empathy and Belonging at Your Organization… one Circle at a Time
What are DEIA-focused Empathy Circles?
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Doing Diversity/Equity/Inclusion/Accessibility (DEIA) work is not simply telling people how to think about DEIA. It is co-creating a culture where every person feels like they are heard; they are included; and they belong. DEIA-focused Empathy Circles help us get better at reflective listening and understanding each other. During them, we create a culture of empathy and belonging. They are not support groups, but they make us feel supported. They are not work groups but they make us feel like we worked on ourselves. They help us feel heard, connected, and like we belong. We all take turns mindfully speaking and reflectively listening according to the structured dialogue protocol of Empathy Circles. I add my Empathy Unchained™ DEIA Card Deck to provide convo starters.
Some past convo starters we used are:
- What is one core value that makes you interested in doing DEIAJB work?—or whatever is alive for you.
- What do you need at your org in order to feel psychologically safe or that you belong?
- How can we implement more people-first language at our org?
- What can be done to reduce cultural taxation?
- Which identities (e.g., race, class, language, gender/sex expression/orientation, ability/disability, etc.) make you “powerful” in our society? Which identities make you “less powerful”?
(All convo starters add the option to speak about “whatever is alive for you”.)
Quotes from past participants from all over the world:
- I used to not hear what people said, because I was so busy thinking about my response. I learned to really hear from doing Empathy Circles.
- It is such hard work to slow down and reflect back to people what they said. I have to use all of my body and brain power.
- Using people-first language helps me put the “human” first and the “group” second. It softens the edges of my bias.
- I did not even know what Cultural Taxation was before this Empathy Circle.
- This is the first time I have felt completely heard [at work].
- After what we have experienced in this Empathy Circle… We are all brothers and sisters now (smile).
- I feel more included when there is diversity around me. It means that everyone’s ideas are different. Therefore, no one gets othered, because their perspective is an outlier.
- I cannot believe how much I connected with everyone in this room—even though this was on zoom.
Contact Dr. Felicia Darling to learn more. Also, you can become an Empathy Circle Facilitator for free or by donation at the Empathy Center and be part of the global empathy movement.
BIO: Dr. Felicia Darling is a precalculus and calculus lecturer at UC Berkeley and tenured faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College. She is the author of Empathy Unchained™: Heal Your Trauma, Uplift the World, the Empathy Unchained™ DEIA Conversation Deck, and Teachin’ It! She completed her Fulbright-winning ethnographic research when she completed a PhD at Stanford University. She writes, speaks, and researches about inclusion, active math learning, and trauma-informed education. She teaches math, teacher education, yoga, empathy circles, and meditation in Northern California.
