Empathy = Power for Change

Presented by:G. Anne Orban

Director, Discovery & Innovation

November 17, 2011

Empathy = Power for ChangeStory

What is the problem that empathy can help to solve?

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• Big ideas at the fuzzy front end require big change

• Organizations resist big change

• Huge personal commitments are needed by individuals, teams and executives in corporations to move big product/service ideas forward at times when data is necessarily soft and perceived risk is high

How do we strive to gain deep insight?

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How do we strive to gain deep insight?


• We collect huge amounts of explicit data – qualitative & quantitative

• We strive to use this data to find unarticulated/tacit needs

• How do we recognize when the customer is telling us what really, really deeply matters to them?

• How do we communicate that so that it matters to all those who make the decisions that result in really successful new products/services?

• Current techniques for data analysis & synthesis remain necessary but are insufficient

• PowerPoint slides, no matter how well crafted are forgettable

• So what’s better?

Getting out of our own way is no longer enough.

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We still need to…•Acknowledge and intermediate our personal and company biases and assumptions using reflective thinking and discussion•Recognize that there may be another way or another perspective

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Deconstructing Empathy


We have to move ourselves through the levels of empathy.

• Oblivion – “Other people don’t think like me – I don’t understand why”

• Awareness – “Others aren’t like me – I’m so glad I’m not like them – Our customers should be more like me”

• Sympathy – “I can understand your pain – When I think about it”• Empathy – “I know your pain – I feel what you feel on a visceral and

life-changing level”

Oblivion Awareness

Sympathy Empathy

November 17, 2011

From Steven Farenholtz, PhD, Director, Strategy and Innovation (iSquad), General Mills

The power of empathy…

Empathy = Raw moments of truth = Helping people feel differently (forever)


We need tools to help us go from the external to the internal

• Empathy gives us an intuitive sense of which facts to pay attention to

• Empathy informs intuition in ways that numbers can’t

• We all have capacity for empathy

• Allows us to develop products that are ‘not for us’

• Connects us to the emotional job-to-be-done beyond the functional and the social.

How do we typically tell the story of our findings to others in the organization?


Method

Charts (boxes, arrows)

Rational Argument

Dialogue

Storytelling

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Efficacy?

What are criteria for effective communication of consumer/customer findings in your organization? How do

you persuade someone?

Is there a better way?


Left Brain

ReasonAnalysisLogic AbstractionsObjectivity

Right Brain

FeelingNarrativeEmpathyStoriesSubjectivity

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… Because Empathy gets you through the messy middle – through the hundreds, maybe thousands of decisions that need to be made to bring big ideas (new products/services) successfully to market.

Persuasion i.e. how ideas make

their way in the world

November 17, 2011

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Acknowledging the work of Stephen Denning, Author of numerous books including The Springboard: How storytelling ignites action in Knowledge-era Organizations.

What About Storytelling…


Storytelling is really the oldest profession and it’s powerful.

•Homer’s story of Odysseus was passed on for centuries before it was written down

•Plato banned storytelling from The Republic because it was too powerful a tool in a State governed by reason

•The story of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation -- the story of the 26-year-old university graduate without a steady job, trying to support his family shocked Tunisia and was powerful enough to spark protests over unemployment that have led to … the fall of regimes in The Arab Spring

November 17, 2011

What About Storytelling…


We all know the term – blinding flash of the obvious. I think that means intuitively you know its right. Project outcomes at the fuzzy front end are sometimes ‘accused’ of delivering the obvious. Great. That means the deliverable is intuitively right. But you didn’t know that when you started the project. The vehicle for infecting people with a similar level of intuitive commitment to a big insight is the empathic story that deeply, intuitively connects.

For General Mills empathy is an outcome of data analysis and synthesis. It is an individual ah-ha in a safe team setting. It moves individuals and teams through awareness and sympathy from customer interaction and personal experience -- using tools and techniques from theatrical improvisation to breaking through the mask of indifference -- and delivers the empathic ah-ha in a story you remember because it connects empathically.

What story do we tell?

A story that is…

• True – authentic with no spin so I am able to trust it

• Empathic – so I am able to really connect deeply with the story

• Minimalist – quick to tell so that my rational brain doesn’t wander away and my eyes glaze over

• Ignites the ‘what if’ spark to become the springboard for actions and decisions that I need to make for a breakthrough idea to become a reality

“The greatest gift is knowing you’ve been heard.”


Storytelling Exercise


Topics:1. Dia-besity – the Type 2 diabetes and obesity epidemic2. Illegal Immigration – Legislation and reform 3. Occupy Wall Street – Unemployment, economic turmoil4. Child Abuse – In light of the Penn State indictments5. Healthcare – Access and cost

Directions:•Break into groups of three and make sure to team up with someone new•Each person identifies a role in one of these categories: care-giver, authority figure and consumer/patient/participant/target/victim•Role play a dialogue in which you try to express your emotions and your circumstances •Report back to the group something that you learned

Finding the breakthrough story…

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From Steven Farenholtz, PhD, Director, Strategy and Innovation (iSquad), General Mills

Finding the breakthrough story…

slide above)From Steven Farenholtz, PhD, Director, Strategy and Innovation (iSquad), General Mills

The empathic story…


Rule of Thumb• Find a big area of opportunity aligned with business

objectives and corporate strategy

• Ensure clarity of purpose

• Employ consistency of process steps

• Build skills to integrate head and heart

• Improve iteratively

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Your Innovation Focus Presenter

Anne Orban, MFA, MEd, NPDPDirector Discovery & Innovation Anne is committed to helping clients innovate all along the value chain. At Innovation Focus she combines her experience in marketing research, process design, and facilitation to help clients grow through new product and service development. Anne has her master of education degree in adult training and organizational development and her master of fine arts in theater and drama. She is a certified New Product Development Professional. Currently she serves of the Board of Directors of the Product Development and Management Association.

Empathy = Power for Change

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