In our last episode, we explored how empathy and trust can be taught and scaled across organizations, schools, and societies. This time, we turn to the harder question: can they also be measured—and should they be?
David and Audrey unpack why organizations are eager to quantify trust and empathy, drawing on research from psychology, neuroscience, and organizational behavior. High-trust workplaces consistently outperform low-trust ones, and leaders who demonstrate empathy boost engagement, retention, and goal attainment. But attempts to measure these qualities come with risks.
Surveys, analytics, and even AI-driven emotion tracking promise insight, yet they raise profound challenges. As Audrey notes, the Hawthorne Effect—people changing behavior simply because they’re observed—applies here, much like the Observer Effect in physics. When empathy and trust are reduced to scores, they risk becoming performative, gamed, or even weaponized in performance reviews.
The conversation explores both sides: the potential for early-warning signals that help organizations intervene before trust erodes, and the danger of creating environments where employees feel constantly surveilled. In the end, the episode argues for balance: pairing metrics with qualitative feedback, using data as a mirror rather than a microscope, and keeping humanity at the center of organizational life.
Audrey closes with a reminder: “Empathy is felt, not scored. Numbers may guide us, but the human connection is what sustains us.”
