Why Compassion Belongs At The Centre Of Modern Institutions: The Karuna Practice

The Karuna Practice works at the intersection of emotional literacy, leadership, and systems change. In this conversation Neha Bhatia and Reshma Piramal, Practice Leads at The Karuna Practice(www.thekarunapractice.org), reflect on how compassion, contemplative practice, and psychological safety are reshaping institutions, leadership, and the future of work in India.

1. What personal experience first taught you the power of compassion in leadership?

Neha: I think I experienced compassionate leadership long before I had the language for it. In my mid 20s, when I was going through an existential crisis, my then boss was the only person who made me feel seen and heard which gave me immense courage to discover my calling and follow my heart. That became the turning point and shaped my leadership deeply. Many years later in my fellowship journey with Acumen India I got the words that helped me articulate the experience (it’s their manifesto’s central tenant) -"Doing what 'sright, not what's easy "Hence, I lead from the belief that people don’t disengage because they don’t care, they disengage when they don’t feel heard, understood or seen.

Reshma: I see compassion as a profoundly beneficial disposition to cultivate - for everyone, irrespective of the role, rank, or station we hold. It is an understated form of strength, one that requires courage and shapes how we respond to others, and just as importantly, it shift show we experience ourselves. My own understanding of compassion emerged through the ‘felt experience’ of receiving it from a complete stranger. I was once stranded in a foreign country, far from home, and a complete stranger went out of their way to ensure I reached my destination safely. That moment left a lasting imprint. It made me feel that there is something deeply redeemable in humankind after all. Even today when I return to that memory and notice how it moves through my body, it remains vivid, something I can continue to draw nourishment from. For me, to be guided not just by emotion or analysis, but by the ability to step into another’s shoes regardless of hierarchy or structure reveals how atender connection can foster trust between people. It softens divisions, blurs hierarchies, and ultimately boils down to seeing and treating another as you would yourself. So, when this awareness of both self and other, rooted in ‘warm-hearted concern’, guides the choices we make it has the potential to transform individuals in ways that benefit everyone.

2. You work in a space that’s often misunderstood as soft or fringe - how do you respond to that?

Reshma: I’m curious about what we label as hard or central. Isn’t human engagement relational and about connections? Can leadership, or any collective endeavour, exist without dependence on others? Many of us are tasked with managing people, teams, and systems. Yet if we struggle to manage our own minds, the distractions, anxieties, fatigue we all carry, on what basis do we imagine we can manage others, who are no different from us? If these capabilities help us show up with awareness and empathy, and contribute more fully to the communities we belong to, what exactly makes them “peripheral”?

Neha: Imagine living all day with 5% battery on your phone or driving with hand breaks on. Sounds odd, isn’t it? But when we expect people to function under high stress without ever being taught how to regulate themselves – that doesn’t even cross our mind as anything odd. We teach strategy, performance, and productivity, but not how to calm the nervous system that must carry all of it as a container. Compassion in my opinion, isn’t soft – it’s a capacity that helps us navigate complexities of both inner and our world and systemic intricacies. It addresses a foundational skills gap that schools, colleges, and organisations were never equipped to teach because the adults designing them were never trained in it.

3. What does a compassion practice look like inside a high-pressure meeting or a failing school?

Neha: Any system - school or workplace demands consistency in performance but why is there negligible or no consistency in support towards the same. The shifts needed to bring compassion into action may seem simple on the outside. For e.g.: can we shift from “Why aren’t people performing?” to “What state are people operating from?” Or shift to ‘Naming Fear/Apprehension’ instead of ‘Escalating Blame’– Taking pauses, Checking in practices, temperature checks when we sense something heavy/during difficult conversations, checking out practices etc. It’s the simple things that help acknowledge and honour a being and their experience.

Reshma: The first step is creating ‘psychological safety' in a classroom, meeting room or any environment for that matter. We begin with ourselves. We can’t always change external circumstances, but we can change our relationship to them by first taking care of ourselves and regulating our emotions, when a trigger or stressor throws us off balance. When we are emotionally dysregulated, we tend to react in ways that can be detrimental-both to the situation at hand or for learning to unfold naturally. This can push us into a chronic state of stress and fatigue. Learning and practicing body literacy skills can be the first step towards emotional regulation, thereby creating a sense of safety and security. Research shows that when we connect to a memory of having felt nurtured, our body remembers the sensations. This can help bypass the default sympathetic nervous system response that hijacks us and contributes to our distress.

4. You’ve worked across different ecosystems - parents, teachers, school staff, leaders. What connects them all?

Neha: The universality of our experience as HUMAN BEINGS! We all have emotions, we all experience vulnerability, burnout and we all seek to be happy and well. Beyond the titles hold and the roles we play, lies a human, just like me! Our common humanity is such a deep connecting thread among all of us. All of us want to be resilient and can be – all of us want to feel a sense of connection and are deeply interconnected. Only if we all had access to the tools.

Reshma: I think we’re far more connected than we realise. Don’t we all want to be happy and healthy, and avoid pain or discomfort? We tend to respond better to kindness than to harshness; each of us has thoughts and emotions, hopes and desires; and we all get distracted. That’s because each of us possess a mind-this is an ancient insight from our Buddhist wisdom tradition, one my teachers often repeat. These inner experiences can unsettle us, or they can bring clarity and calm. When we hold this awareness, it can become the first step in developing and cultivating empathy for others who are, in these ways, ‘just like us’. When we reflect on this more closely, we begin to see how interdependent we are, how nothing happens in isolation. This realisation reveals how really connected we all are!

5. Can compassion really scale? Or is it inherently individual and intimate?

Reshma: I believe we all inherently have the potential to cultivate traits and habits that are beneficial to us. Compassion is one such capacity, one that, when cultivated and practiced, can become enduring. This disposition supports us over time and contributes not only to our own sense of wellbeing, but also to the wellbeing of those we interact with and engage. Like any habit, compassion strengthens with practice. When we intentionally nourish and learn to cultivate this capacity, it is more likely to take root and become embedded in the way we think, relate, and act. This needs to start with baby steps, just like when we go to the gym we don’t start lifting heavy. Slowly we build this muscle for compassion. When individuals, institutions, and systems begin to ‘feel’ the value of compassion, not just understand it conceptually, they are far more likely to invest in it willingly. For me, this is about diving deep before trying to swim the breath of the sea.

Neha: While Compassion begins individually, it scales through structures and systems. Systems that prioritize psychological safety. That’s the vision behind The Karuna Practice-training facilitators, building communities of practice, and creating multiple entry points. What scales is not a feeling, but a method: short, evidence-based practices that people can integrate into daily life. Fifteen minutes a day can literally change neural pathways.

6. How do you navigate the scepticism around contemplative practice in institutions builton metrics?

Neha: Honestly, in my head I feel scepticism is natural to something that cannot easily be measured but as a human I sometimes see myself getting irritated at that question. We, at The Karuna Practice try to meet people where they are. Besides, research already shows that focused time spent on mind–body regulation improves decision-making, resilience, and learning. Institutions are already paying for dysregulation - through attrition, burnout and disengagement. We therefore don’t view contemplative practice as an alternative to metrics, but as the infrastructure that allows metrics to improve sustainably. Metrics tell us what is happening; contemplative practice helps us understand why.

Reshma: From my own experience, I’ve seen that when there is suffering or discomfort, people don’t need to be convinced to engage in contemplative practice. They turn to reflection and contemplation to find stability, clarity, and a sense of ease to settle inner turbulence. Who doesn’t wish to thrive? It is the ‘felt experience’ and the tangible benefits in one’s personal and professional life that motivate people to continue returning to the practice. I also believe that when an institution genuinely values and recognises the benefits of cultivating a culture that supports the flourishing of its community, that orientation can become ‘contagious’ and gradually trickle through the system.

7. In an increasingly polarised world, what role does emotional literacy play in civic and social resilience?

Neha: In my opinion, Emotional literacy is foundational to democracy. Without the ability to recognise fear, shame, and anger in ourselves, we project them onto others – we are all victims of that in one way or the other. Polarisation thrives where inner awareness is absent. Teaching people to sit with discomfort, listen across difference, and regulate reactivity isn’t a

Luxury, it’s civic infrastructure.

Reshma: When individuals cannot recognise or regulate their own emotions, fear and reactivity can easily spill into their interactions within the communities they are part of, deepening division. Emotional literacy teaches people to pause, respond with clarity, and create psychological safety rather than escalate conflict. Compassion becomes can play a key role here. Not as sentimentality, but as the capacity to recognise that others, like us, have minds shaped by experience, stress, and vulnerability. This recognition makes it possible to navigate any relationship even when there are disagreements or conflicts. It aids in shifting our narrow focus by broadening our perspectives, sustaining relationships and trust that hold communities together. So, I see emotional literacy as a critical capability in cultivating resilience and strengthening compassion.

8. What are the blind spots leaders often carry when they speak of ‘well-being’ in their teams?

Neha: The biggest blind spot is assuming well-being is an individual responsibility rather than a systemic one. We continue to offer one-off activities like - yoga sessions, wellness days - while maintaining unrealistic workloads or fear-based cultures that sends a mixed message. Another blind spot is believing that people can endlessly “push through” meaningful work. I’ve lived that delusion myself - that purpose would protect me from burnout. It doesn’t. People don’t burn out because they’re weak; they burn out because the system extracts more than it replenishes.

Reshma: I believe that when we hear the term “well-being” in many teams, there is often an unspoken reference to individual output or productivity. It can sound as though the work must continue uninterrupted, and the question becomes how we ensure people’s physical and mental states are managed so they can keep delivering on a larger vision and the outcomes they are accountable for. To shift this lens toward interdependence, connection, and trust, and ultimately toward the flourishing of each individual-we need to ask more fundamental questions. This includes understanding people in context, seeing them for who they are, and re-examining what we consider “normal” within the system: chronic overload, constant availability, or emotional suppression. When a leader begins to value not only results, but the quality of attention, connection, and support within their teams, well-being stops being a side initiative and becomes part of how work actually gets done.

9. What is the most brutal truth you’ve had to confront in this work?

Neha: That meaningful work can be the hardest place to admit exhaustion. When you choose your work, when it aligns with your values, it becomes harder, not easier, to stop. I’ve had to confront my own tendency to override my body in the name of commitment. But that is the exact opposite of Compassion because it excludes self.

Reshma: Change takes time, even though most of us want instant results. Early on, small shifts can feel significant, but over time it’s sustained practice that allows the benefits of new habits to take root. We often expect immediate, dramatic change when we engage with something new, such as contemplative practices, but this expectation runs counter to how behaviour and habit change occur. Change requires repeated and consistent practice, even if it’s just five minutes on days when things are going well. It is when challenges arise, that daily practice can then be recalled and applied more easily. This is when real change begins to show, because we’ve invested in familiarisation through practice, gradually paving the way for it to become our ‘default mode’, also known as embodiment.

10. And finally, if there’s one shift you hope to see in the way institutions understand compassion, what would that be?

Reshma: As I mentioned earlier, for any institution to genuinely value compassion and invest in the well-being of its employees, it cannot be treated as a side initiative or a “nice to have.” The deeper shift lies in reframing how we fundamentally see and understand people. This means moving from viewing individuals as “resources to be managed” to recognising them as humans with minds, emotions, and limits. Any meaningful cultural shift must begin by questioning what we consider normal and possible within existing systems. Only when this underlying lens changes can enduring change take hold. It is then that compassion can be understood and valued for its true transformative power, one that supports the flourishing of both individuals and the communities they are part of.

Neha: I hope institutions stop treating compassion as an add-on and start recognising it as a core life skill. Not something you access in crisis, but something you practice daily, like hygiene for the nervous system. If we can normalise that, we won’t need to wait for burnout to begin caring. We’ll build systems that are humane by design. And when institutions understand this, they might stop asking, “Can we afford compassion training?” and startasking, “Can we afford to function without it?”