INDIANAPOLIS — Empathy activist is one hat that author, CEO and speaker Rob Volpe wears as he travels the country discussing better ways to communicate and relate with one another.
Volpe was raised in Greenfield and Richmond, Indiana, and even worked as a paperboy for the Indianapolis Star before he eventually grew to the role he has today as CEO, Chief Catalyst for Ignite 360. The company is a strategy firm that helps businesses grow by applying empathy into their workflow.
Volpe lives in California and recently wrote a book called "Tell Me More About That (TMMAT): Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time." In it, Volpe presents evidence of an "empathy epidemic" and delivers five practical steps to help solve it one conversation at a time:
- Dismantle judgement
- Ask good questions
- Active listening
- Integrate into understanding
- Use solution imagination
Volpe argues empathy is the "secret ingredient" to many of the skills we need in all aspects of life — communication, decision-making, trust, forgiveness and compassion.
13News met with Volpe during his book tour at Books a Million in Indianapolis, where he shared five steps to empathy and elaborated on how to put them into practice. See the full interview below.