When I read recently in Stanford Magazine that the Stanford Graduate School of Business had a course on compassion and that it regularly carried a waiting list, I was intrigued. My interest was mostly due to the uniquely personal challenges I continue to face as I practice my own commitment to greater compassion for myself and others.
As I discovered, Stanford was not alone. The article on the Stanford GSB class highlighted studies proving that attitudes and activities of(what I call a “compassion culture,” and in particular self-compassion, have proven effective for students in reducing distress and preventing burnout.
CharterForCompassion.org, a central coordinating website for the global implementation of the Charter For Compassion, described 12 sectors – including Arts, Business, Education, Healthcare, Social Justice, Science and Research, and Women and Girls – of partners that have a compassionate action plan in place or are working toward the implementation of a plan. The education sector lists more than 100 public and private partners globally in higher education alone. The site also states that there is now significant evidence that fulfilling the mission of learning and education actually depends on the cultivation of a “compassion culture.”
While it is great to know that there is momentum around compassion culture, neither the article nor the site delved into what I thought was the most interesting part of my journey: the challenges of cultivating compassion culture. For me, it was and is not an easy journey, especially as a Black woman. The difficulty I experienced as I navigated toward compassion showed me that it can be a significant paradigm shift. My personal reflection was that this shift was even more significant for me given my particular history.
Let me explain. The paradigm of compassion culture encourages action and supports compassionate actions based on good-natured intent. Through the prism of compassion, failure is not criticized but appreciated as a lesson learned based on a genuine attempt to make things better.
For most of us, this compassion culture is counter to the dominant, traditional “criticism culture” paradigm in which we are socialized. And, for most of us, one of the first places we learned this was in the context of education.
As early as I can remember, my father, a high performer throughout his educational and professional career, pushed me to excel in school. His approach, though, was low on encouragement and high on setting and meeting high expectations. I was not encouraged to do well; it was simply expected. There was no celebration of excellence and good grades, only penalties for bad ones. As you would expect, criticism was much more common than compassion.
