MY BOOK
Empathy for Change:
How to Create a More Empathetic World
Leading change is not about moving fast and breaking things—it’s about using empathy to make our world better.
About the Book
In Empathy for Change, former White House entrepreneur-in-residence Amy J. Wilson dives into the intricate science of empathy, debunking common myths and sharing practical uses for a better society.
Having built cultures of innovation and change across multiple sectors, she knows that when we do not design with compassion, we remove the humanity and closeness we have to one another.
This book touches on:
How and why compassion can fuel real change despite its misconceptions
Why change is more difficult in the 21st century and what we must do to instill human connection
How power, culture, and systems shape our reality and how they can be redesigned
What should be combined with empathy to make true positive impact
And more! If you are looking for a toolkit to transform the places you live, work and play, this is it.
Empathy for Change is the essential guidebook for developing kindness and learning to use it to make a more understanding and equitable future.
AVAILABLE AT THESE RETAILERS •
AVAILABLE AT THESE RETAILERS •
Antionette Carroll, Founder, President, and CEO, Creative Reaction Lab
“A lack of empathy creates harm, trauma, and negative systemic impact. Just like an abundance of empathy creates safety, confidence, power, and systemic impact.”
Why I Wrote this Book
My name is Amy J. Wilson and I am the author of Empathy for Change. I wrote this book because I could see that, as a society, we were on a race to the bottom and chasing a constant state of productivity, profits, ego, and objects over people. I had been running on that hamster wheel myself, burnt out after working nights and weekends on creating social change that I felt so passionate about but didn’t take the time to refill my coffers.
When I paused to take a sabbatical in the middle of my career in late 2018, I reflected on my own experience and talked to many other people trying to heal the world. This book is an exploration of empathy as my biggest strength, what led me to burnout, and how we as a society can get out of our way and create a better world with more empathy.
My hope is that, in reading this book, you will discover ways that you can interrupt our conditioned ways of thinking and step into empathy and connectedness. In this book, I hope to instill the same sort of passion and excitement that I have for empathy and change in you. And then, ultimately, I want you to see this book as a tool to help you turn what you learned into action with a framework that I’ve devised after more than a decade of building cultures of innovation and change into where you live, work, and play. Excited to have you along for the journey!
Media Featuring Empathy for Change
Featured in Forbes: Innovating through Empathy to Thrive in a Divided World by Amy J. Wilson
Featured in Time Magazine: It’s Not Just You Column
Book Trailer: Empathy for Change
Conversation with Eric Koester, Founder of the Creators Institute
Fireside Chat at the Presidential Innovation Fellows Foundation
Purposeful Empathy Podcast: Empathy, Innovation & Change ft. Amy J. Wilson
Empathy in Action Framework Guide & Canvas
(Formerly called the Heart, Head, and Hand Framework)
This Framework focuses on sustainable change to build the right culture, structure, and systems to support the change over time. It centers the design on the worker voice, and emphasizes co-creation over outdated systems that no longer work for our modern world. This Framework and guide helps build community and trust, by participating and building out approaches over time.
This Framework and Guide allows you to build a movement of change with your organization’s most innovative and forward-thinking leaders to fundamentally shift your culture and system for the better.
This Canvas is also described in Chapter 14 in Empathy for Change: How to Create a More Understanding World. This is the supplemental fillable canvas so that you can iteratively co-create a more compassionate culture.
There are two ways to use this canvas. Please make a copy of either of these options and create your own canvas:
Bonus Case Studies
-
Slack Case Study
Slack Technologies (or just “Slack”) is only a few years old and deliberately built its company culture. It even defined its own “market” (an area of focus in business) by creating a new kind of workplace for the modern era.
-
Creative Reaction Lab Case Study
The Creative Reaction Lab (CRXLAB), based out of St. Louis, Missouri, mobilizes a movement of Young Leaders as Equity Designers, with the support of Design Allies of all ages, to design healthy and racially equitable communities.
-
Activate Labs Case Study
Activate Labs uses art, music, and immersive experiences to build peace. The Activate Labs team centers participants as owners of their own experience and masters of their own healing.
-
Innovation.gov and The Better Government Movement Case Study
Using a team of public servants, Amy led research and co-created a shared language for 21st-century government. She led a movement of thousands to increase the use of and instiutional support for modern practices in the US Federal Government.
-
NYC Service Design Studio Case Study
Service Design Studio (the Studio) in New York City uses evidence-based research and innovation to decrease poverty and increase equity in the city.
-
Lead for America Case Study
Lead for America is building stronger and more inclusive rural and urban communities by placing dynamic and diverse young leaders in high-impact local government roles and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to build a bench of civic leadership in their hometown communities.
Monica Curca, Executive Director and Founder of Activate Labs
“Empathy has hands and feet. You’re moving yourself, your body, and your work to the spaces where the problems are occurring.”
Mari Nakano, Director of the NYC Service Design Studio, Mayor’s Ofc. of Economic Opportunity