What is empathy? And how can you put it into action By Kate Hartley, Co-Founder, Polpeo Communicate in a Crisis A recurring theme in this edition has been the importance of empathy when it comes to dealing with climate change protestors and the wider public. We think you need to show
Want more insights on crisis
post, but as responses to
empathy that you under-
communications? Take a
countless individuals who
stand the concerns levelled
look at Kate’s book, ‘Com-
are all worried about differ-
at you, rather than just
municate in a Crisis.
ent aspects of the crisis.
When we run crisis simula-
These people all have their
tions, we look for the par-
own stories, and the formu-
ticipants to respond using
laic response is frequently
empathy.
jarring.
What we often see is teams
When we give the participants
that prepare an official
feedback, we discuss the need
statement on the crisis, and
for a response that uses nat-
then copy and paste part
ural-sounding language and
or all of that statement to
expresses empathy.
reach for boiler-plate statements. But it’s more than that, if an issue becomes a crisis and (say) protestors turn up, disrupting flights, you need to show empathy towards those affected. So what is meant by empathy? And how can you use it in a crisis? Polpeo Co-Founder Kate Hartley explains more.
54.
social media. Not just in a general update
But what is empathy? How is it different from sympathy?
Airline Marketing Monthly | December 2019
Author of the book,
