Change Doesn't Fail, We Design It Poorly | Ashley Jablow

I mean, so, you know, first just starting with like, what is empathy? Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand their experience, which is ultimately the core of what design thinking or what we might call more broadly human-centered design is all about.

It's starting with people, putting them at the center, understanding what they need and the pain points they're experiencing, their wishes and goals, and then designing with those in mind, right? And so it's interesting because Empathy is, again, a really important mindset.

It's a really important value, right, for just moving through the world.

And there are a lot of different places where empathy can, and in many cases, hopefully already exists inside organizations.

You know, a couple of examples that come to mind are I'm working with a coaching client right now who is applying for jobs.

And empathy for job applicants, for job seekers, is not always top of mind, at least from my perspective personally.

on the outside looking in.

I would love to hear from hiring managers who might say, oh, here are all the different ways we bring empathy into our process.

But my experience coaching leaders and executives through the experience of applying for jobs, there's a lot of opportunity to bring more holistic understanding of applicants as people into the process.

So that's one place where I guess on my wish list, I would say, let's add some more.

But I think, you know, I've had the opportunity to work with some really incredible leaders across industries from conservation to social impact to biotech.

And I can think of so many wonderful moments where those leaders said, I really am trying to understand who my team members are, right? I'm listening, I'm asking powerful questions and I'm taking their experience and their needs into account as I'm formulating our new strategic plan, or I'm considering how this reorg is going to affect my team, right? Or even how I'm establishing as the leader you know, our new values for our new organization.

So, you know, ways of bringing your team through the process with empathy, with transparency, it's definitely happening and it's so important.