Sympathy

No man is an island. The necessity to connect with others, and the ability to feel for each other- these are aspects of being human.

But as we get caught up in the whirlwind called life, as our priorities shift with the passing of years, we find ourselves feeling disconnected from others, and detached from what Temenos defines as ‘sympathy.’

Sympathy is the ability of an individual or a group of people to accurately gauge the mindset of others in the group.

Sympathy leads to unity

It forms the basis of functioning well as a group. If the individuals in a team are out of sync with each other- if their minds aren’t attuned- the end result is not a group, but more of a mob.

Only chaos and not harmonic action would rise in such a situation.

Needless to say, that’s not desirable- especially in organizations where momentum and prosperity are both determined by concerted team work.

Sympathy helps you thrive in groups

Unfortunately, we find sympathy to be the missing element in many scenarios where a bunch  of people come together to make things work. Instead of the desired unity, we find confusion, precisely due to a lack of sympathy among the individuals.

And when solutions are offered, they are often misguided, focusing on the symptom of division rather than the absence of sympathy- which is the disease at the core.

But it needn’t be like that.

For sympathetic ability is not manufactured, it’s already in you, in all of us. We just need to re-discover it, and make it a part of our everyday life, so that we could thrive in a group, and progress collectively.

Columnist David Brooks defines sympathy in a Ted Talk

For more details, visit our website - https://www.visiontemenos.com/events