Freedom, Empathy, and the Direction of Meaning (le Sens)

Olivier once spoke to me about a French word that he has always loved: sens. It is a word that unfolds in three ways, direction, meaning, and sensation. The more I think about it, the more it seems to capture the essence of what we are exploring in this series. Awareness helps us perceive, dignity teaches us reverence, trust allows us to act with courage; yet freedom and empathy give all of those qualities a sense of movement and soul. They give them sens.

I remember a conversation early in my career with a young analyst named Priya. She was brilliant, unconventional, and relentlessly curious. Her manager at the time often scolded her for “coloring outside the lines.” One afternoon she said to me, “I wish they would let me experiment, even once. I might fail, but at least it would be my failure.” The following week I persuaded her manager to give her space to design an alternative approach to a long‑standing process. The result exceeded every expectation. But what stayed with me most was her radiant smile as she said, “You trusted me with my own freedom.”

That moment still defines for me the connection between freedom and empathy. Freedom without empathy can become arrogance; empathy without freedom can turn into pity. Together, they form a living current that nourishes meaning. When we grant someone freedom, we acknowledge their capacity for choice. When we respond with empathy, we accept responsibility for the consequences of that choice. Somewhere in that mutual recognition lies sens, direction guided by care.

Throughout my many years in consulting and leadership, I have seen how easily organizations confuse supervision for stewardship. Rules are necessary, certainly, but they often grow until they smother initiative. I once worked with a company that had hundreds of pages of policy manuals yet struggled with innovation. During a workshop I asked the group to name one rule they could eliminate tomorrow without harming safety or ethics. The room fell silent. Then an older team leader whispered, “Perhaps we could start by trusting people to think.”Laughter followed, then quiet nods. One by one, they began identifying unnecessary constraints. Within months, creativity returned. It was as though employees had been given air after years of confinement.

Empathy was the invisible companion in that process. Leaders didn’t just hand out freedom; they stood beside those exploring it, listening, encouraging, adjusting. Freedom, when combined with empathy, becomes relational rather than rebellious. It is not the loud declaration of independence, but a quiet invitation to grow.

Technology is redefining freedom in complex ways. We can work from anywhere, connect with anyone, and yet we are often tethered to invisible algorithms shaping our choices. The paradox of our digital age is that we have never been so free in capacity and so constrained in spirit. The challenge, then, is to reclaim freedom as an act of consciousness rather than convenience. True freedom is not found in options, but in presence, in the ability to choose with awareness of impact.

Empathy anchors that awareness in shared humanity. It tunes our inner compass to the feelings of others. When we listen deeply, we begin to sense not only what people say, but what they mean and need. In this way, empathy becomes the navigation system of the heart. It keeps freedom from drifting into self‑absorption.

Olivier once compared empathy to gravity, a force that holds everything together without being seen. I find that beautiful. Without empathy, freedom can scatter into chaos. With it, freedom moves in harmony, guided toward meaning. That, perhaps, is the full expression of sens: freedom as direction, empathy as sensation, and their interplay as the very meaning of community.

There was a moment late in my career when this lesson struck me personally. I had been leading a large project facing tight deadlines. Exhaustion and pressure had eroded goodwill, and one evening during a tense meeting, an assistant quietly placed a cup of tea beside me and whispered, “You’ve been listening to everyone else. Have you listened to yourself?” Her simple empathy reminded me that freedom also includes permission to rest. That night, we reset the team’s pace, and the project’s quality soared. Care restored direction.

In the grand design of human progress, freedom and empathy must travel together. Freedom expands possibilities; empathy ensures they serve life rather than consumption. When societies lose empathy, freedom becomes mere privilege. When they lose freedom, empathy shrinks into sentiment. But when the two align, they turn ordinary effort into shared purpose.

So what is the direction of meaning that le Sens invites us toward? I think it is the quiet understanding that every choice, no matter how small, contributes to a larger pattern of being. Awareness reveals that pattern; trust gives it shape; freedom and empathy keep it alive. Meaning emerges naturally when actions align with care.

The La Fontaine fable of the wolf and the dog echoes here once more. The wolf chooses the loneliness of freedom over the comfort of submission. Yet perhaps the higher calling is not to reject companionship, but to seek it without losing oneself. That balance requires empathy, to walk freely while remaining connected.

As our conversation with Olivier continues, I am struck by how these reflections keep circling back to interdependence. The self‑healing humanity we dream of will not arise from uniformity or control, but from the free resonance of empathic beings finding meaning in one another’s light.

Freedom gives movement; empathy gives direction; together they make progress humane.

Let’s Keep Talking!

Peter Comrie
Co-Founder and Human Capital Specialist at Full Spectrum Leadership Inc.
Reach out to me at peter@fullspectrumleadership.com

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Tags: Digital Ethics. Human Dignity, Data Responsibility, Technology and Society, Privacy and Trust, Ethical Leadership