Collaborations that honor shared humanity don’t just feel good—they also travel, scale, and convert.
EXPERT OPINION BY MICHAEL A. TENNANT, FOUNDER, CURIOSITY LAB
Sep 20, 2025
Pharrell Williams performs onstage during the “Grace For The World” event at St. Peter’s Square on September 13, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. Photo: Getty Images
When global politics sometimes feels like it’s taking us back to the dark ages, unexpected collaborations cut through the darkness. More than 80,000 people filled St. Peter’s Square for Grace for the World, co-directed by Andrea Bocelli and Pharrell Williams, capping the World Meeting on Human Fraternity with a unity message and a surprise drone show that lit up Rome’s sky. For leaders, there is a clear message: In a polarized era, empathy is a winning strategy. Collaborations that honor shared humanity don’t just feel good—they also travel, scale, and convert.
If you’re building something right now, meet the moment with this empathy playbook to lead with empathy and resilience today.
Attune: Find the why that your community can feel
Grace for the World didn’t sell a conference. It sold a why, which was human fraternity. As Pharrell Williams put it, the gathering was “an opportunity for people to galvanize, and recognize their strength in numbers,” speaking to unity beyond religious lines.
Try this:
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Codify three to five audience tensions you’re hearing right now, such as fear of division, burnout, and economic anxiety.
Translate those tensions into a purpose statement that names the future you’re building and who benefits.
Bake that purpose into event titles, product names, and internal rituals so your message travels without you.
Values alignment: Practice moving in the same direction
Putting Bocelli’s sacred repertoire on the same stage as Pharrell’s pop culture stardom telegraphed a simple truth: Ostensibly different audiences can share the same purpose when values are clear. Behind the scenes, the Vatican convened administrators, entrepreneurs, economists, academics, social workers, students, athletes, and spiritual guides across roundtables to propose concrete actions, turning symbolism into output.
Try this:
Bring cross-functional partners into one room. Align values, objectives, and constraints before tactics.
Design for pluralism. Invite voices that don’t usually share a stage. Facilitate how each contributes.
Codify roles and a decision playbook so teams can move fast without tripping over each other.
Time and energy audit: Focus on the highest leverage moves
A single, high-impact moment in the most symbol-dense square in the world outperformed a hundred fragmented announcements. Co-directing a free concert at St. Peter’s, and simulcasting it globally via major broadcasters and streamers, turned a conference into a civic moment.
Try this:
Sequence. Don’t scatter. Choose one flagship activation this quarter such as a town hall, summit, or open letter.
Ladder supporting content and partnerships into that moment instead of launching side quests.
Measure attention and action such as attendance, sign-ups, pledges, and donations to inform the next cycle.
Ecosystem audit: Make it about them, not you
Big-tent moments work only if people feel seen through the scale. The Vatican offered the venue and artists brought reach. Facilitators convened roundtables that fed concrete actions, and coverage spanned mainstream news to hip-hop culture outlets, proof the invitation landed widely.
Try this:
Map circles of influence such as community orgs, creators, educators, faith leaders, and critics. Offer real roles such as co-director, co-author, or co-host. Don’t just “feature” people.
Ship support kits, like talking points, tools, and assets, so allies can execute in hours, not weeks.
Tie launches to community contributions or public goods your audience cares about.
Empathy to abundance: Convert constraints into invitations
Grace for the World delivered a string of them, from the venue’s unprecedented concert scale to the drone display, creating a narrative that punched through a crowded, conflict-heavy news cycle. It also reached audiences that don’t normally look to the Vatican for culture moments.
Try this:
Pre-write your case study. Describe the abundant outcome you want whether it’s shared authorship, unusual allies, or measurable impact. Then, work backward.
Lock 30/60/90-day checkpoints including an owner, one metric that matters, and a next action step to keep momentum real.
When constraints appear, such as budget, attention, or access, reframe each as an innovation brief, not a blocker.
Why this matters now
The World Meeting on Human Fraternity wasn’t just star power. It was systems designed for belonging at scale. If you’re serious about growth in a volatile market, then build the muscle to convene unlikely neighbors, listen in public, and ship purpose with measurable results. That’s how you turn empathy into an engine your customers and your organizational culture can believe in. For more on operationalizing this, try my Empathy + Innovation Sprint Guide, for ambitious teams that are determined to grow through uncertainty.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.