Creating Compassionate Organisations

Several years ago, I was commissioned to deliver ‘Creating Compassionate Organisations’ workshops on behalf of the British Psychological Society. Compassion is a central value to how I work. The Dalai Lama defined compassion as a ‘sincere concern for others’ well-being founded on awareness of our own experience’. Therefore, we seek to be reflexive in the way we carry out research and in how we relate to our clients — leading with kindness, curiosity and concern.

Organisations that adopt a compassionate approach create a positive environment for employees, customers, service users, and the wider community. Compassionate policies and practices, such as support during personal crises or mental health initiatives, can lead to higher employee morale and job satisfaction. Compassionate organisations that promote a healthy work-life balance often see lower absenteeism due to stress-related illnesses. Compassion fosters a culture of trust and loyalty, encouraging open communication and stronger team dynamics. Importantly, compassionate organisations are more likely to embrace inclusivity and diversity, creating a richer, more innovative workplace.

At our workshops, we generated a range of ideas for making organisations more compassionate. We share them here to inspire our readers to implement these within their own organisation to help nurture compassion:

• Taking time to do things (talk, reflect, care, eat) and be SLOW.
• Emphasise relatedness — we are all connected and our actions affect our colleagues and the internal and external contexts in which we operate. A compassionate organisational culture is therefore a shared responsibility.
• Create organisational dialogues around compassion. This can be done formally through action learning sets for instance or informally over shared lunches.
• Introduce Schwartz rounds into your health and care organisation to bring people together to reflect on difficult experiences.
• Form a workplace choir — singing together helps those with anxiety about their singing. This role models coming together as a team over work-based tasks to help lighten the load.
• Carry out root cause analyses when things have gone right! Learn about how to promote the root causes of good outcomes.
• Apply an ethos of appreciative inquiry by shifting the focus away from deficits to strengths within the organisation.
• Set up a buddying system between more and less established members of staff. This promotes mutual learning about the context of the organisation and promotes embeddedness and a supportive culture.
• Finally practice ‘Everyday Kindness’ — this refers to regularly performing small, considerate acts that demonstrate care and concern for others in your place of work. This is a simple yet powerful way to contribute to more connected and compassionate organisations.

Crucially, creating compassionate organisations creates a virtuous cycle where everyone — employees, clients, service users and the community — can thrive.