Laura Snellman-Junna

Mechanics of Empathy:

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the emotions of another. Emotion is a chemical state in the brain. Tuning the brain to the same chemical state with colleagues accelerates teamwork, promotes understanding, and builds trust. In some cases keeping it cool and “rational” may be a better option for the shared goal. Empathy is one of human’s natural means of survival and success.

Understanding the mechanics of empathy and learning to recognize its effects in oneself helps to develop as communicator and co-operator.

This session gives an overview about empathy and emotional contagion as a neuroscientific fact. Benefits and risks of empathy and emotional contagion are discussed from teamwork perspective. Also some techniques to control the emotional contagion are presented.

Bio:
Laura works as an Agile Coach with Reaktor. People are her main motivator: the team that is on a journey towards a goal, building something valuable. She considers that a big part of agile coaching is to support people to understand each other better, in order to eventually make great things happen. And sometimes coaching is about helping team to make it through a bad day. In the end, methods are tools. Finding the right tool for the job, together, is the key.