The (Social) Science of Empowerment and Empathy

I wrote and presented this lecture for Graduation Day for the Center for Social Impact Strategy Executive Certificate Program at the University of Pennsylvania in September 2018 about creating meaningful impact narratives for change. It’s a mix of personal reflections on empathy, motivation and highlights some of the current science, technology and tactics for empathetic narratives.

The objective of this lecture is to:

• Share quick lessons from where neuroscience meets sociology; exploring the latest in brain science and thinking about how this will affect Social R&D

• Think about how we might creating empathetic impact narratives that motivate people intrinsically vs. using classic extrinsic motivators 

• Focus on the empathetic phases of design thinking

• Understanding how power, change and empathy can collectively contribute negatively and positively to social impact

Video from the lecture at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania

Resource package from The (Social) Science of Empowerment & Empathy

This resource package (Google Doc format) accompanies my video presentation to provide you with sources, general resources and further reading.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or you’d like a PDF of the slides. 

I hope that you find these resources useful.

If you want to geek out about making design thinking more democratic, you can always reach out to me to book a virtual coffee.