In many of the events we attended, a critical competency is being discussed- Empathy.
Empathy is discussed with the context of employee interactions, customer, and product management constructs. Responding with Empathy was often a skill/characteristic often sought out in social care settings. This has entered the corporate board room discussions in the last few years, and post-pandemic has gained significant traction. We went back to the research desk to look at certain questions. A very basic google search will show you that Empathy is the capacity to understand and share the feelings of another person. This can be a little tweaked in enterprise settings. Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person and Systems. (the system can be customers, broader shareholders and other entities with which the enterprise is deeply connected). The next question, in my mind, was whether Empathy could be taught. Not many experiments conducted in this regard. Researchers Epner & Bailee, 2014 have theorized that Empathy is a skill that can be taught and learned. A thesis work done by Laura Meyer at Arizona State University conducted an interesting experiment. The researchers took a sample medical system of doctors and nurses and documented the common phrases and responses used with patients. Post this; they developed an Empathetic response guide. This guide consisted of more empathetic statements. Over 3 months, the rate of empathy (a metric measured by surveys) improved from 63% to 83%!. That is a significant jump. But is Empathy merely statements used during interactions? A very systemic action plan and the framework should be backed post empathetic responses. For example, a call centre agent telling an angry customer “ “That is tough to think about. I hear you, and we will see what can be done” – should now follow up and truly see what can be done. This is where Empathy is both a skill and a business strategy. Not many tangible experiments in this space. Concepts like Design Thinking brings in empathy in product designing. This should be a key aspect of all future Strategic Workforce Planning initiatives
