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The
Role of
Empathy
Creativity From Knowledge
Rearranging Elements
Innovative
Openings
The Role of Empathy
 As strange as it may sound, success in competition, that is, success in war,
doesn't start with conflict, but with empathy. Strategy starts with imagining how
others think and
feel. We can never know how others think and feel. We can only imagine how we
would feel in their position. This, of course, requires seeing things from their
position and not just from our own. Nothing can be done unless we first make this
leap into the unknown.
People think that competitive strategy is insensitive to the needs of others.
The opposite is true. All effective strategy is based on empathy. A strategist
must imagine the hopes, dreams, desires, and fears of others. A chess
player only has to foresee an opponent's moves. A strategist has to leverage the
desires of others to create a subjective position that will win friends,
supporters, and allies and frighten all potential opponents.
As strange as it may sound, empathy and sympathy starts with selfishness. Someone knew what He was saying when He
said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." We can imagine the needs of others
because we are aware of our own needs. The gift of empathy is a purely human
attribute. It doesn't come from our senses. It comes from our self-awareness.
Most animals have keener senses than we do, but their strategies are limited to
flight or fight. They cannot imagine the range and variety of selfish desires
that we humans have. It is imagining this range and variety of desires that
allows us to accomplish our goals.
Criminals also lack the imagination of empathy. They see what others have
and simply want to take it. This leads to conflict and the unavoidable costs of
conflict. As Sun Tzu taught, these costs are too great. Success has never and
will never come from conflict. Negotiations never work with criminals or tyrants
because they cannot imagine any possibilities beyond the zero-sum game.
Competitive empathy is work. The fears and desires within a single human heart are complex.
Multiply its unknowns times the population of the world. That is how big the job
is. This
is why it is best sticking to our own little corner of it. So the next step in
innovation starts with what we know.
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