What is Kindness & Why Does it Matter?
Central Market in York, PA. “What does kindness mean to you?”
What is kindness? I have an idea of what I think kindness is and I have a tangible story of how kindness has become a powerful force in my life but I suspect that we each have a personal definition of kindness. I believe that sometimes there are no words to adequately describe something that we feel strongly and that visual reminders (to be kind) can instantaneously, inspire us to open our hearts to each other. I believe that kindness, big or small, has a universal impact. When I seek words to describe kindness, the only thing I know, deep within me, is that kindness can change the world.
Kindness became a tangible and noticeable force in my life beginning in 2012 when I lived in Tucson, AZ. I worked for Intuit (the company behind Quickbooks & TurboTax, etc.) and became part of a group, known as the Innovation Catalysts, that was tasked with helping the organization adopt Design Thinking (now frequently referred to as Human Centered Design or HCD) as a way to discover and deliver more value & delight to customers. As an Innovation Catalyst, I was able to take advantage of amazing training that taught me that Design Thinking can be broken into three core principles: Deep Customer Empathy, Rapid Experimentation, and Go Broad to Go Narrow. In the context of product development, these principles have specific meanings and are supported by specific frameworks and tools to accomplish the goals established by each principle. It’s a fabulous way to collaborate and work; learning and practicing it changed the course of my career. To this day, I pinch myself knowing that I get paid to help people understand how to incorporate this greatness into their work lives.
The magnificent and sometimes unacknowledged part of design thinking is that in time it evolves from being a way to collaborate effectively to a way of thinking and approaching the world around you. Those who experience this evolution are often said to be members of the church of Design Thinking. Others describe this as part of a design maturity process in which practitioners develop a similar mindset. The mindset goes something like this:
Defer judgement
Have empathy
Seek to understand
We’re better together
But we’re all imperfect, so use data to make decisions
Do more, talk less
I sometimes think of design thinking as the scientific method wrapped in love.
The most tangible of these ideologies, for me, is “have empathy” and “defer judgment”. In developing these skills/mindsets I learned to develop empathy towards myself and to stop judging my own actions and behaviors. Pretty quickly, I learned to like myself, and over time I learned to genuinely love myself and be kind to myself. As this happened I began to understand the power of kindness and I began to notice anything having to do with kindness.
Driving around town, I began to notice big, beautiful mosaic murals all of which declared “Be Kind”. I also noticed that about every third car on the road in Tucson has a Be Kind bumper sticker. I learned that the mosaics and the bumper stickers were from the same organization known as Ben’s Bells. I began to observe my own powerful physical reactions to these visual cues and THIS is really what inspired me to learn more about the power of kindness.
Around the time that I was learning to love myself and I was noticing the Be Kind mosaics and bumper stickers, I also met the person who eventually became my husband. As they say, you can’t accept love from another until you accept love from yourself. (I’m 1000% the walking billboard for this saying.) We were both transplants in Tucson and once we were married we decided to move closer to one or the other of our families. This is ultimately what brought us to York, PA.
We’ve been here for about a year and a half. We took the first year to renovate our home and to enjoy life living about a mile from my in-laws. We’re happy and grateful and now as life in York is getting settled, I’ve been starting to think again, with more intention, about the power of kindness and about how much I miss Ben’s Bells. This is how Yorkind came to be.
There’s a lot I still don’t know. In fact, there’s way more not known than known. What I do know, is that Yorkind will be, at least in part, dedicated to educating students and the wider community about the importance and power of kindness and ways in which to practice kindness. I also know there will be a visual/public art aspect to Yorkind. The desired outcome here is to help people remember, in the moment, how powerful something as simple as kindness can be. And there will be a group volunteer aspect to Yorkind. The goal of this is to create a cause that helps to build connections within the community that might not otherwise be created.
Launching Yorkind publicly is my way of doing more and talking less. It will not be perfect and there will be people that think it’s not important and that’s ok. I hope that Yorkind resonates with at least a few people and that in time, it becomes what these people want and need it to be.
In love and kindness,
Kristine Spengler
