This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.

Imagine this: A young seminary student is running through campus to deliver an important lecture. As they hurry by classmates, the student comes across a person slumped down, seemingly injured and distressed. What will the student do? Stop and help, or hurry on past?
 
This scenario was the basis of a groundbreaking study at Princeton Theological Seminary in the 1970s, conducted by social psychologists John Darley and Daniel Batson. The study aimed to explore what role situational factors play in our willingness to help.
 
The students involved in the study were all preparing to give a lecture on the Good Samaritan. Unbeknownst to them, they were each given one of three scenarios:

1. “You’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago.” This was the high-hurry condition.

2. “The team is ready for you, so please go right over.” This was the intermediate-hurry condition.

3. “It’ll be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head over.” This was the low-hurry condition.

You might imagine a person with strong morals and a personal understanding of the Good Samaritan story would stop and help in any of these circumstances. But the study behind this scenario shows otherwise.Only 10% of those in the “high hurry” category stopped to help compared to 63% of “low hurriers” who stopped to help.
 
55 years have passed since that study, and the findings are equally relevant in today’s fast-moving world. Between the demands of our commitments and the pull of our devices, our collective capacity for empathy and compassion is decreasing, rapidly. Case in point: Volunteerism is at an all-time low, while social media usage is at an all-time high.
 
But, what if?

• What if we chose to buck those trends?

• What if we countered social disconnection with human reconnection? 

• What if we chose to slow down?

Call it radical kindness or simple neighborliness; what if we prioritized more of each other this year?
 
Last week, in delivering his eulogy, Jason Carter, grandson of the late President Jimmy Carter, called his grandfather’s life a “love story, about love for his fellow humans and about living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.” Gerald Ford, who admired Carter so much that he left behind a eulogy before his own death, noted that Carter “pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across boundaries of caste.”
 
How many of us will lead with such great humanity? And what’s holding us back from trying?
 
It’s become too easy to put our headphones in during a walk or to brush off time with someone because of a pressing deadline. It's become too easy to hurry on past. I’ve done it too many times myself.
 
But what if…we chose to lead life differently? With less competing demands and more compassion.
 
From Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Parting Prescription to Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Anti-Resolution, the trend is growing, and the call is intensifying. Our collective health is at stake. It’s time to make more time for each other. Even small doses of social connection can lead to better health and increased levels of compassion.
 
Fred Rogers, the most neighborly of leaders, once said, “Some days, doing the best we can may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect—on any front—and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.”

This week's column is as much a call for you as it is for me. We can all benefit from a little more time together. We can all benefit from less phone time and more face time. (And no, the app on your phone does not count.) Because leadership, after all, is best practiced in the present.

It's time to do what we can, with what time we have.

Every week this year, I'll bring you a message like this one, with ways to practice compassionate leadership and conscious communication. If this message resonates with you, please join our list or invite someone else to. Thank you.

This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.