Now that much of the world is moving toward reopening after the COVID lockdown, it’s time to explore the many ways our lives and organizations will change in the post-pandemic society. In our recent survey, “Compassionate Leadership Amid the Chaos,” we asked participants “What do you believe could come out of this crisis?”

In White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo carefully examines the roots of the modern American racial structure and the reasons it is so difficult to acknowledge the pervasiveness of racial bias. She offers a path forward for white people to dismantle the grossly inequitable structure within which we all live.

Laura Berland and Evan Harrel of the Center for Compassionate Leadership recently sat down with Chris Whitehead for his podcast, The Compassionate Leader Interview. Listen to the podcast here and read a summary of the interview. (Note: Podcast was recorded prior to COVID-19 galvanizing everyone’s focus, and therefore does not touch on the global pandemic.)

In our recent survey on “Compassionate Leadership Amid the Chaos,” we asked respondents which emotions they have been experiencing during the crisis. The responses of leaders and team members diverged substantially, and leaders can learn and take action based on these differences. We recommend the steps to take in order to build more effective teams.

Compassion, at its core, is a distinctly human act. Does that mean that organizations cannot be compassionate?

Organizational compassion requires compassionate intention. Without that intention, the benefits of compassion are unlikely to follow.

Love is the most powerful and constructive emotion we have. So why are we afraid to talk about it and use it as leaders?

No term describes the simultaneous presence of 2 positive attributes in an individual the way comorbidity describes the simultaneous presence of 2 diseases. This isn’t a surprise. Epidemiology has been around since the 1850s, while widespread scientific study of positive emotions and behaviors is more recent. This language gap should be closed and we propose doing so with a new word, “covitality.”

Welcome to the 2020s, The Decade of Compassion! Three key attributes of this moment point to this being the right time, the critical time for this decade to become The Decade of Compassion.

We invite you to look back with us on 2019 and consider five of our favorite titles published this year. We hope you take time to sample one or more of these insightful books to deepen your appreciation for and practices around compassionate leadership.