A Formula for Viral Kindness

After The Kennedy Center Honors on Wednesday evening (an amazing presentation of Black-American artistic excellence), we kept watching CBS and saw the premiere of Steve Hartman’s new show, The Gift: Kindness Goes Viral. An extension of his Kindness 101 specials, Hartman’s wish is for kindness to go viral, with people giving and receiving kindness in an exponential manner.

Hartman shared touching stories of people who helped others and how a single act was the catalyst for more of the same: the woman who received a monetary gift to adopt the little girl she had been caring for, and then raised enough money through her The Adopted Closet garage sales to pay for the adoption fees of nine other families; the young woman, who, inspired by the hair stylist who gave her hope when she was challenged with an autoimmune disease, initiated The Red Chair Project, taking her red salon chair in her car around Minneapolis and giving haircuts to the homeless; or the elementary school bus driver who creates a family of his young charges, encouraging and counselling them with respect, love, and empathy. He now coaches teachers, does motivational speeches in other school districts, and has inspired people around the world.

Steve Hartman with Professor Hosoi

Hartman is so passionate about kindness going viral that he asked Professor Anette Hosoi, the Neil and Jane Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Mathematics at MIT, if it’s mathematically possible that a single act of kindness can change the world. Taking Hartman’s challenge to heart, Hosoi stood at her classroom black board and formulated how a wave of kindness can flow around the globe. Calculating the probability of whether someone would respond in kind and how many times is what Hartman and Hosoi say is the formula to restore faith in humanity. The key to starting the wave is for each person to do just a little more than what was done for them.

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.                                                                                                                                 — Amelia Earhart

A New Year presents new opportunities.  As leaders in our communities and companies, we can be agents of change through the kindness we choose to enact. Via intentional acts of kindness, we can expand and extend our capacity for empowering leadership.

In this coming year, we wish you an abundance of health, joy, and peace … showered with beautiful notes of kindness.