The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe rarely generates the level of empathy it would have if it was closer to home. This American Life, the wonderful radio show / podcast, recently sent staffers to Greece to learn the stories of refugees. The stories were then shared over the course of…
I made sure I taught my kids, if someone sends you an e-mail, a text message, or any other type of communication, you need to respond. If you don’t have time to give a complete reply, acknowledge receipt and tell them you will get back to them later. And then…
I recently read the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in other ways in our criminal justice system. The book's central story is of Stevenson's fight to get Walter MacMillian, wrongly…
Last week, I wrote about a powerful empathy exercise. This week, I want to write more about some additional powerful things I've learned recently about empathy. I like to watch parts of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It’s on too late for me, so I watch it on DVR…
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day earlier this week, I want to share a powerful empathy exercise that took place just after Dr. King’s passing. I’m surprised I had not heard about it before recently reading about it. It was controversial because, as you will see, it was…
One of the best things I watched on TV this year was the HBO miniseries, Show Me a Hero. It was a bit long (six hours) and it was a bit slow, but the takeaways from the show were worth every minute. As I said in this blog post, seeing the…
Just over two years ago, after seeing the movie Fruitvale Station, and coincidentally, around the same time, reading the book The New Jim Crow, I wrote a blog post about the importance of seeing the humanity in people, and how that relates to being a leader. ("Be a Leader" is one of the Six…
During the week after the George Zimmerman verdict, Marcie (my wife) and I were driving in the car and heard a priest say in a radio interview that a primary cause for this tragedy is that Zimmerman didn't see the humanity of Trayvon Martin. We both thought that was very…
I recently had a 24-hour stomach virus. I was feeling queasy around mid-day Friday, threw up around 6:00pm, was in bed from 7:45pm until 7:15am (a fitful sleep), felt light-headed all the following morning, and felt almost 100% by mid-day Saturday. It was the first time I threw up in…