Law #2 Act with Empathetic Excellence

This chapter looks at how competence, merit, and empathy work together to create empathetic excellence. The Venn diagram illustrates how merit, competence, and empathy intersect to shape different types of organizations, depending on the combination. Although imperfections exist in meritocracy, as they do in anything else, plenty of research, data, and examples show that meritocracy is a choice. Empathy is the third pillar of empathetic excellence, and it's the one that binds competence and merit into something sustainable and human. Empathy is inherently subjective. Subjectivity is crucial in all aspects of our lives. When most of us think about diversity, we immediately envision physical attributes like sex, race, ethnicity, or age. Cognitive diversity means bringing together teams of people who see the world differently, who approach problems in varied ways, and who have different intellectual backgrounds. Turning empathetic excellence into reality requires more than good intentions.