![\"iu\"](\"https:\/\/thecustomerblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/11\/iu.jpeg?w=179&h=273\")
<\/p>\n
\nRichard didn\u2019t give me an engineering problem to solve on the whiteboard or a complex coding scenario to talk through. He didn\u2019t grill me on my prior experiences or educational pedigree. He had one simple question.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine you see a baby laying in the street, and the baby is crying. What do you do?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou call 911,\u201d I replied without much forethought.<\/p>\n
Richard walked me out of his office, put his arm around me and said, \u201cYou need some empathy, man. If a baby is laying on the street crying, pick up the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Yes, that sums it up well. \u00a0Most of the folks that I have encountered are intelligent like Nadella and have about the same emotional intelligence (empathy) as he had when this event occurred many years ago.<\/p>\n
How Important Is Empathy in Experience Design?<\/h3>\n
Great design necessarily has to be human centred as only human beings can appreciate the presence\/absence of great design. \u00a0Is any kind of empathy sufficient? \u00a0Or is a particular kind of empathy necessary? \u00a0Lets listen to the folks at IDEO:<\/p>\n
\nHuman-centered design is all about building a deep empathy with the people you\u2019re designing for\u2026..<\/p>\n
In the Inspiration Phase you\u2019ll learn directly from the people you\u2019re designing for as you immerse yourself in their lives and come to deeply understand their needs..<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Notice, that IDEO folks speak of \u201cdeep empathy\u201d \u2013 the kind of empathy that arises only after one has spent enough time immersed in their lives. \u00a0It is that immersion (living in the arena in which life occurs) that leads to the deep understanding of their needs.<\/p>\n
Yet, time after time I see folks \u2018study\u2019 their target (customer, employee) from a safe distance (sitting in the stands) through a variety of means \u2013 surveys, focus groups, interviews. Then use their intellect to come up with personas, journeys etc. \u00a0All intellect, zero empathy.<\/p>\n
Can you just take these \u2018intellectuals\u2019 and turn them into empaths with some classroom training? \u00a0Or maybe an empathy app. \u00a0Is it this simple?<\/p>\n
The Right Kind of Life Experiences Are Essential To The Presence of Empathy<\/h3>\n
I say that suffering is essential to empathy. \u00a0It is my own (personal) suffering in the arena of cancer that has led me to accept a request from a friend to reach out and talk with her friends father who is dying of liver cancer. \u00a0How about Satya Nadella?<\/p>\n
\nI discovered Buddha did not set out to found a world religion. He set out to understand why one suffers. I learned that only through living life\u2019s ups and downs you can develop empathy\u2026.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just that life\u2019s experience has helped me build a growing sense of empathy for an ever widening circle of people. I have empathy for people with disabilities. I have empathy for people trying to make a living from the inner cities and the Rust Belt to the developing countries \u2026. I have empathy for small business owners working to succeed. I have empathy for any person targeted with violence and hate because of the color of his or hers skin, what they believe, or who they love.<\/p>\n
My passion is to put empathy at the centre of everything I pursue \u2013 from products we launch, to the new markets we enter, to the employees, customers, and partners we work with.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So how did an \u2018intellectual\u2019 like Nadella turn into such an empath. \u00a0The clue is in the line \u201cIt\u2019s just that life\u2019s experiences \u2026\u201d \u00a0Is there a particular life experience that was the turning point?<\/p>\n
\nLittle did I know then how profoundly our lives would change. Over the course of the next couple of years we learned more about the damage caused by utero-asphyxiation, and how Zain would require a wheelchair and be reliant on us because of sever cerebral palsy. I was devastated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Something awful like this happens. It brings your world to a halt and suddenly you ooze with empathy. \u00a0Right? \u00a0Not necessarily. Let\u2019s listen to Nadella:<\/p>\n
\nI was devastated. But mostly I was sad for how things turned out for me and Anu. \u00a0Thankfully, Anu helped me understand that it was not about what happened to me. it was about deeply understanding what had happened to Zain, and developing empathy for his pain and his circumstances while accepting our responsibility as his parents.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
What Are The Implications For Your Customer\/Employee Experience Efforts?<\/h3>\n
Empathy is central.<\/p>\n
Yet, time after time, I come across Experience \u2018teams\u2019 full of Nadella\u2019s \u2013 intelligent, hardworking, and self-centred. \u00a0Folks who treated everything an engineering (process, technology) problem. These folks even when they think\/speak \u2018walking in the shoes of the customer\/employee\u2019 are doing nothing of the kind. Mostly they are projecting themselves (their mindset) into the shoes of their customers\/employees. \u00a0Worse, these folks are blind to this \u2013 so blind that when someone like me points this out it simply does not show up on their radar.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s missing is the Anu\u2019s of this world \u2013 people\u00a0who naturally feel\/think and show up\/operate in terms of the needs\/suffering of the other \u2013 fellow human being.<\/p>\n
Until the Nadella\u2019s are teamed up with the Anu\u2019s of this world, and listen \u2013 really listen, most of the experience design\/improvement efforts will yield little of value.<\/p>\n
Enough for today. I thank you for your listening and wish you the very best. Until the next time\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve worked with folks working on improving\/transforming the Customer Experience. \u00a0I\u2019ve also worked with folks working on improving\/transforming the Employee Experience. In the process, I have come across personas, customer journeys, voice of the customer surveys, design thinking, service design, process mapping\u2026. Yes, I have come across plenty of stuff. \u00a0Yet, I say that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7337,"featured_media":886224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,84,332],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}