Gear Up on Empathy!

JacobOgren-gear-up.md

Gear Up Prework - Why Empathy?

What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

Empathy is an extremely human characteristic. In my life, it allows me to build relationships, collaborate, and teach. It allows us to connect with others and create a shared experience. Over the past 2 years, I have become increasingly interesting in the idea of awareness. Simply put, awareness is the perception of a situated. However, if you dive a bit deeper, you'll find that self-awareness and awareness of others can be powerful tools in social situations as well as professional. In either, I have been able to use this profound awareness to better understand myself, including my strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs and motivations, as well as the ability to understand others. I've found that taking the time to understand, and later reflect on, these awarenesses, has allowed me to better relate to, create, and collaborate with others.

How does empathy help you build better software?

A new product fulfills a need. To create new products we must first understand people and what those needs are. Empathetic design allows us to step inside the shoes of others and create something that provides a lasting benefit. Typically in best practice, the process of creating a product, or piece of software, will include market research and consumer studies. The information gained about your users from things like a focus groups or quantitative study can be incredibly valuable and may change the way you build software to better suit your customer.

Why is empathy important for working on a team?

Relationships are at the root of empathy. In order to effectively work as a team, collaborate and create results, we must first understand our teammates and empathize with their thoughts and feelings. Out of empathy comes respect, which is a great place to build from. Another important aspect of empathy as it relates to working on a team is being present in the moment. Being present allows you to actively listen truly absorbing the situated and the thoughts of your teammates. From here you'll be able to provide and receive honest and accurate feedback.

Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.

I recently worked on a cross-functional project. In the meeting we were a diverse group of individuals who came from different teams, with different skills, strengths, and we all solved problems in a slightly different way. Throughout this process, it was important to empathize with each other, and truly listen to how this project could and should impact each team. Through the meeting, everyone was able to shared their thoughts and ideas, and ultimately we created something that no one of us could have, and a process which benefited each team equally.

When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?

I suppose that it's natural for someone to have more issues empathizing with a certain type of personality versus another. That said, during any project or situation it is of the utmost importance to respect others and allow each individual to share and contribute. Understanding someone and being able to step into their shoes will help bridge these differences, and ease collaboration. One thing that I can do to improve in this area is to continue working and collaborating with these types of people. The more I interact with others whom are different than me, the more I'll understand our differences, but likely our similarities, and be able to pass less inital judgment.