follow up on our very productive dialogue at Vendome

Hello Dialogue Artists,

I’ll send the reminder for next Wednesday in a few days, but wanted to follow up right away on last night’s very productive session with David Swann and Janice Fraser.

Below this message I’ve appended the “seven habits of highly empathic people in Calgary” which we used as a framework for the dialogue.

We came up with about half a dozen good ideas for our response to the Alberta election results, and my top pick would be the one from David Swann: Get to know your MLA. Not only are you a potential ally (or adversary) for them at the next election, but they need experience to do their job in the legislature, and you can provide important parts of that experience. When we do our check-ins at the dialogues over the next six weeks, please share any progress you’ve made putting this idea into action.

Arthur

An Empathic Idea for Our Response to the Recent Elections

As good luck would have it, in the very same month that the Alberta elections were held, we opened a downtown space in Calgary, the Humainologie Gallery and Store. This is a singularity in our city, based on the idea of empathy. It’s connected with Empathy Week and an annual film festival and the Calgary Centre for Global Community. So we might think of it as a flag of empathy in Calgary that we fly as our response to those elections.

Accordingly, as I transcribe the “Six Habits of Highly Empathic People” from Roman Krznaric’s book Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It, I’ll add a seventh habit that we can use to transform the culture and society of Calgary, Alberta. Here goes:

The Seven Habits of Highly Empathic People in Calgary

Habit 1: Switch On Your Empathic Brain

Shifting our mental frameworks to recognize that empathy is at the core of human nature and that it can be expanded throughout our lives.

Habit 2: Make the Imaginative Leap

Making a conscious effort to step into other people’s shoes – including those of our “enemies” – to acknowledge their humanity, individuality, and perspectives.

Habit 3: Seek Experiential Adventures

Exploring lives and cultures that contrast with our own through direct immersion, empathic journeying, and social cooperation.

Habit 4: Practice the Craft of Conversation

Fostering curiosity about strangers and radical listening and taking off our emotional masks.

Habit 5: Travel in Your Armchair

Transporting ourselves into other people’s minds with the help of art, literature, film, and online social networks.

Habit 6: Inspire a Revolution

Generating empathy on a mass scale to create social change and extending our empathy skills to embrace the natural world.

The Seventh Habit: Support Humainologie in Calgary

Using our collaborative imagination (group genius) to generate fresh ideas for supporting the Humainologie gallery and store in Calgary, as a catalytic site for cultural transformation in our city.