Empathy Building for Teams: the Key to Success!:
Empathy is a key ingredient for creating a supportive, thriving workplace. First, let’s define empathy: put simply it’s the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
When you build empathy on your team, you create a culture of understanding and support. You’re able to work better together because you’re more in tune with each other’s needs and emotions. You’re also able to be more creative and innovative because you’re able to see problems from multiple perspectives. And finally, you’re able to deliver better results because you’re all working together towards a common goal 👊.
There are 3 stages of empathy that you can work your team through:
- Stage 1: Cognitive Empathy 👓: get the team to be able to see other perspectives other than their own.
- Stage 2: Emotional Empathy 🎭: start feeling the emotions with others for deeper understanding.
- Stage 3: Compassionate Empathy 🫶: taking thoughtful action to support others
Teams that understand human beings (with feelings, emotions and needs) are at the core of their success, will see the value of an empathetic team. Stronger relationships will form🤝, motivation & morale will shoot through the roof 📈 and the overall culture will benefit from amazing vibes.✨
The Three Stages of Empathy: Applying to Your Team
1) Developing Cognitive Empathy: The First Step Towards Empathy Building
Cognitive empathy is the first stage of empathy, which involves understanding another person’s perspective. To build cognitive empathy on your team, encourage open communication and active listening. Make sure team members have opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas, and acknowledge and validate their perspectives.
Ways your team can adopt:
- Storytelling: Encourage team members to share stories about their personal experiences, perspectives, and challenges. This can help create a better understanding of different viewpoints and backgrounds.
- Active listening exercises: Practice active listening exercises where team members take turns speaking and listening to each other – have them practice Listen-Loop-Dip. This can help create a more supportive and collaborative environment where everyone feels heard and valued.
- Cross-functional projects/shadowing: Encourage cross-functional projects where team members from different departments work together or even shadow each other. This can help expose team members to different perspectives, challenges and ways of thinking.
- Celebrate Differences: Embrace and celebrate differences within the team, including different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This can help team members better understand and appreciate each other’s unique strengths and challenges.

2) Fostering Emotional Empathy: Putting Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes
The second stage of empathy is emotional empathy, which means actually feeling the emotions of others. The focus should be on understand one another on a deeper emotional level. Here is where you empathize with feelings, not just facts! Start by recognizing others emotions and then layering in vulnerability.
Being vulnerable does NOT mean you should start sharing your own story. It means you are able to tap into the feeling they are feeling that you may have felt before (in similar or different circumstances). You can then ask thoughtful questions to help them explore it further.
Developing emotional empathy on teams can sometimes be challenging, but definitely not impossible.
Ways your team can adopt:
- Empathy mapping exercises: Team members create a visual representation of someone they want to understand better. This might include information such as the person’s feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and environment. This will help team members develop emotional empathy by allowing them to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and gain a deeper understanding of their experiences.
- Role-playing exercises: Role-playing exercises can be used to simulate different scenarios and perspectives. For example, have team members play different roles in a customer service scenario to help them better understand the customer’s experience & emotions.
- Group check-ins: At the start of each team meeting, allow team members to share how they’re feeling. This can create a safe space for team members to express their emotions and help others understand their perspectives.
- Mindfulness exercises: Practice mindfulness exercises as a team to develop self-awareness and the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others. This can help team members be more present and empathetic in the moment.

3) Acting with Compassionate Empathy: Taking Action to Make a Positive Difference
Compassionate empathy is the third and final stage of empathy. The third stage of empathy is compassionate empathy, which involves taking thoughtful action to support others. This means not only understanding other people’s perspectives and emotions but also taking action to help them. On a team, this can mean offering help, support, encouragement & resources to team members who are struggling or facing challenges. It can also mean advocating for change within the team or organization to better support everyone’s needs.
Ways your team can adopt:
- Mentorship: Encourage team members to become mentors to others who may be struggling or in need of guidance. This can create a supportive environment where team members feel valued and supported.
- Active Empathy Role Model: regularly check in with team members and actively listening to their needs and concerns (and follow through with action!). This can help create a more inclusive and supportive environment where everyone feels valued and supported and will encourage them to do the same.
- Volunteer together: Volunteering together as a team can help build compassionate empathy by allowing team members to see the impact they can have on others.
- Team-building activities: Incorporate team-building activities that focus on empathy and perspective-taking. For example, have team members work together to solve a problem, but assign each team member a different role with a different perspective. This can help them better understand the importance of considering different viewpoints and taking thoughtful action to help each other out.

Building Stronger Teams Through Understanding:
Empathy is a critical component of building strong and successful teams. It’s essential for creating a supportive and collaborative work environment, fostering innovation and creativity, and delivering better results. By working through the three stages of empathy – cognitive, emotional, and compassionate – teams can develop a deeper understanding and connection with each other. So start practicing empathy and creating amazing team vibes! ✨🚀

Looking for some FUN, connection and growth for your next team event, social or learning opportunity? We teach modern day business skills through the power of PLAY (we specifically look at empathy in our Empathy PLAYshop)! Check out our Live PLAYshop or Virtual PLAYshop offerings and get in touch!