Elevating the Human Experience

Chapter 15Capabilities to Elevate the Human Experience: Empathy, Courage, Integrity, and Grace

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

—Nelson Mandela

I am always curious what we could be doing to love each other and recognize each other's worth practically. And if we can be taught to hate, then as Nelson Mandela says, we can be taught to love too. Just like we can be taught how to build trust, understand emotions, and tap into human values, we can cultivate empathy, courage, integrity, and grace to love people better. In this chapter we will explore the fundamental capabilities needed to strengthen our ability to elevate the human experience. It is altogether fitting to take inspiration from Nelson Mandela who lived his life both behind bars and as a free man to elevate the human experience of fellow Black South Africans, ending the system of apartheid.

There are seemingly limitless ways to cultivate the capability to elevate the human experience of another through love. I want to talk about the four that I have found most underdeveloped at work: empathy, which lets us feel as if we can experience another's feelings instead of just our own; courage, which lets us try something new, risky, and bold to love someone especially when it is hard; integrity, which ...