Design Thinking - a guide to empathetic business leadership

Design Thinking works. Not only does it work, it is necessary even more so now than ever. Recently I was asked if Design Thinking is possible during the pandemic based on its intrinsic nature of in-person collaboration. And the answer is, of course. 

Social distancing and remote working are limiting human interactions that are necessary to understand each other and build commonality. The human ability to encode and decode symbols keeps our verbal communications adequate in spite of the physical distance we abide by now. However, communication goes far beyond verbal signals. The human factors that are involved in interactions are much more complicated and sophisticated. It is challenging for all of us and that’s why we talk about empathy so much. It’s because we all want to remain humane.

And that’s why Design Thinking can help businesses and leaders. Design Thinking can help you create a pathway to understanding each other through a structured approach of empathy building and staying innovative against confirmation bias. For instance, managing a remote team, in which each member has different personal and physical circumstances at home requires flexibility and agility. Most importantly, empathy. But how do we build empathy instead of talking about it? Below is our empathy map that we use to help leaders understand their teams on a deeper level.

Design Thinking empathy map is used to understand human needs and emotions. It helps define the right problem to solve. Once the problem is identified, it is important for leaders to ask a real question: How might I/we……..? Engage the team in that work, prototype possible solutions, and test. If you want to know more about tactical tools and processes, please email us below.