David Kelley is a both brilliant and wise. IDEO, a company he founded, must be a tremendously fun place to work as well. Kelley deeply understands the value of empathy when it comes to innovating. In the video above, an excerpt from "60 Minutes", he says, "If you want to improve a piece of software, alls you have to do is watch people using it and see when they grimace and then correlate that to where they are in the software and you can figure that - right? And so the thing is then to really build empathy. Try to understand people through observing them."
Empathy is also one of the cornerstones to understanding and honing your nonverbal communication. Quality empathy skills begets quality body language expertise. And practicing and refining one's body language further enhances and prioritizes the fundamentals of Empathy. While empathy is defined and engendered by many variables, nonverbal skills are a huge part of it.
People who have more empathy "live" inside the hearts and minds of others, and thus aren't worried about their own problems as much as the majority of others. They are more energetic, more joyful, more observant, and fantastic integrators of the myriad of issues and scenarios in world around them (e.g. verbal, nonverbal and paralanguage observances). Empathetic people tend to be lovers of animals as well as had/have childhoods wherein there were/are multiple siblings. They also tend to be animal lovers. Empathetic individuals are even skilled at "point of view skills" for nonliving things. People who are skilled in body language also enjoy all these benefits. The two qualities are forever linked.
See also:
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2207: Body Language, Sincerity and Mahmoud Abbas United Nations grants Palestine "Nonmember Observer State"
Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1499: Bill Clinton's Empathy for Eric Fehrnstrom and Mitt Romney ... What's Your Sincerity Quotient
Nonverbal Communication Exercise # 2012: Got Empathy? An Appeal to Asma al-Assad Diplomacy through Unconventional Channels
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1732: Rationalization, Rapport, Empathy Expression How Jewel got her name
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1525: Up for Auction, Up for Interpretation - Edvard Munch's "The Scream"
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2193: Keira Knightley interview re: "Anna Karenina" - Body Language of "R2E2" Facial Expression
See also:
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2207: Body Language, Sincerity and Mahmoud Abbas United Nations grants Palestine "Nonmember Observer State"
Negotiation Nonverbal Communication Secret # 1499: Bill Clinton's Empathy for Eric Fehrnstrom and Mitt Romney ... What's Your Sincerity Quotient
Nonverbal Communication Exercise # 2012: Got Empathy? An Appeal to Asma al-Assad Diplomacy through Unconventional Channels
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1732: Rationalization, Rapport, Empathy Expression How Jewel got her name
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 1525: Up for Auction, Up for Interpretation - Edvard Munch's "The Scream"
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2193: Keira Knightley interview re: "Anna Karenina" - Body Language of "R2E2" Facial Expression
___________________________________________________________________________________