092 Developing Compassion & Empathy

URL: http://www.julieannsullivan.com/developing-compassion-empathy/

Many workplaces and industries today operate like war zones. Employees experience high levels of stress, fatigue, burnout, and other symptoms of disengagement. Workers in fields such as law enforcement and health care are especially prone to these symptoms. Our guest today shares a unique, empathetic approach his company uses to help employees stay more engaged and thrive in stressful environments.

I'm happy to introduce you to Zach Stone, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of the Red Kite Project. Red Kite stops burnout, disengagement, conflict, and violence in the workplace using techniques built in war zones for high-stress professionals. Their methods are research-proven to reduce absenteeism, assaults, complaints, rule violations, health-care costs, workplace conflict and resource wasting. Zach shares why and how Red Kite was founded, as well as a number of principles you can start using today to help employees stay healthier and more engaged.

Zach's Bio: Zach Stone is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Red Kite Consulting Inc. in 2008, He co-created Red Kite Project in an effort to bring healing and burnout prevention methodology used in places like Afghanistan, Rwanda, Chechnya, and Bosnia to the United States of America. Red Kite is the world's first workforce development firm that uses methods built in war zones to help professionals in the harshest jobs to survive and thrive. Zach Began his career in 1999 when he was trained in group facilitation and adult learning.Since then he has worked as an educator, mediator, facilitator, corporate trainer, and crisis interventionist. He has trained over 6,000 professionals in the military, first response, crisis intervention, diplomacy, healthcare, and transportation industries. Zach has been featured twice by Apple Inc, for innovation in the field of training and social innovation.

You'll discover:

• How Zach defines engagement.
• The close connection between people's knowing their purpose at work and the quality of the work they accomplish.
• Why Red Kite has created a culture that values employee health, and how they use different forms of movement (such as dance and yoga) to help people shake off burnout and disengagement.
• The importance of investing in well-being for employees, not only to care for people but as a cost-saving measure.
• Why preventative care is much easier and cheaper than reactive care.
• How "vicarious trauma" impacts workers.
• How Red Kite uses the Post-War Reconstruction Model and applies it to organizations.
• Why an organization's leadership must be committed to change.
• The positive outcomes the Red Kite team has seen as a result of their work.

Interview Links & Other Resources

RedKiteProject.com

Follow Red Kite Project on Twitter

The Harvard Wellness in the Workplace Review (2010)

Here's What Burnout Costs You (Forbes article)

Businesses That Care on C-Suite Radio

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