Silicon Valley is known as a hotbed of innovation. A fiercely competitive environment, it is a place in which discovering and promoting the next big thing is everything. Could it be that “compassion in action” is the next big thing?
As it turns out, one of the most inspiring and effective teams in the 2014 Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest is Compassionate Silicon Valley. To participate in this global “co-opetition” they have amassed a team that includes more than 20 affiliated organizations that have challenged each other to work and play cooperatively. The list includes:
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In all the years of the Compassion Games, we have never seen such an innovative, highly developed level of cultural-maturity and competitive altruism at play! This is unprecedented… clearly they are up to something, and this something could be really good for all of us!
What we suspect is that they are developing and implementing a “spiritual core” for their highly diverse team to ensure that the functionality and applications of Compassionate Silicon Valley are built on an innovative next-generation platform. It suggests that they are taking a Human Kind / Kind Human 2.0 approach to living, working, and playing together.
Could this prototype of a “spiritual element” be an extension of the “secure element” recently patented by Apple and that is now at the heart of Apple Pay? It’s the logical next step beyond “payments” – giving freely with no expectation of anything in return.
Putting pluralistic spiritual and non-spiritual values at the core of their team and its applications to ensure balance, harmony, peace and empathy amongst all the players. It could be a brilliant strategic move that takes Compassionate Silicon Valley right to the lead in the Compassion Games, and continues the tradition of having the valley be a leading hub for fresh, novel, and inventive development.
Dr. James Doty and Unnamed Friend
We checked in on Dr. James Doty M.D. and Founder of CCARE (Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education) at Stanford University who is right in the heart of Silicon Valley and it’s environs. We are wondering whether he thinks such a “spiritual element” is a technically feasible and viable approach to building high performance teams and applications capable of implementing cultures of compassion in communities around the world; Dr. Doty says:
“As a species, humans are finely attuned to the emotional states of others. The survival of our species, literally from birth, is one in which others of our species intervene, support and care when they sense we are in need, in pain or are suffering. It is our default mode. And it is when we demonstrate this reality that our physiology functions at its best and it is also when we are most happy. It is what allows each of us to thrive and is what gives meaning and purpose. Fundamentally, this defines compassion and its power for the giver and the receiver.”
“In Silicon Valley,” he says, “there is for many a sense of anxiety, isolation and loneliness. Compassionate Silicon Valley has created a platform that includes many spiritual and faiths traditions offering a place of safety, security and fellowship ultimately creating a sense of trust and unconditional acceptance that is so critical for authentic social connection.”
“I have no question the power of this effort.”
Speculation has begun about this new heart-based “start-up” on a quest to find a repeatable and scalable way to bring compassion culture to the masses. The new venture Compassionate Silicon Valley is being led by Girish Shah, a spiritually-gifted technical wizard.
Take a look at the instructions they have published for participating in the 2014 Compassion Games:
We can expect great applications of compassion in action from Compassionate Silicon Valley as they build upon the diverse and powerful Human Kind / Kind Human 2.0 platform they are developing. We will all just have to upgrade our collective capacity to do good in order to keep up with this novel approach to playing and winning the Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest!!
Skeptical that compassion in business could work? Listen to Simon Sinek speak about why a true leader creates an environment of trust that makes people feel unquestionably safe, and you might change your mind. Or better yet, your heart.