The “beEmpathy” framework provides an adaptive foundation for empathy. The circular framework explains the empathy skill in four steps: “I hear you”, “I see you”, “I feel you”, and “I am with you”. Step 4 both demonstrates the main aim of empathy and also allows to start with step 1 again. All steps are narrowed down to its core and explained with a headline, a guiding question, and a short definition. Empathy is about gaining both an emotional and a cognitive connection with another person. By following the framework, one will be supported in so doing. Every step can be practised on its own to improve the different parts of the empathy skill. The “beEmpathy” framework should be discussed and regularly repeated. The posters can be hung up in the classroom. They allow the students to always refer back to them when working on different tasks. Through practising the steps over time, they will merge into an intuitive flow. Empathy can have different shapes but one has to be willing to be personally engaged and to develop an attitude of mutual care and respect. The “beEmpathy” framework builds the foundation for an internalised skill that will eventually inspire social interactions all naturally.

 

“Through observation, we become informed, and through empathy, the human connection, we are inspired to imagine new and better possibilities for people.” (Jane Fulton Suri, Executive Design Director at IDEO))