Empathize

Empathizing is a valuable tool for any person or group, it can be used in any conversation. After learning about empathy in class for the last two weeks I can say I know much more than I did when I first approached this topic. Still, I am no expert, because this skill takes practice, it’s not a tool that can just be switched on. But, with time, a people can become so engaged that they use it in their everyday lives.

Empathy is, of course, a huge part of the design world but, what people have learned in recent years and still are currently learning, is that this skill can be added to any career. People have reflected on why humans can feel intimidated or scared of a certain situation, and that is because they’re not receiving enough empathy to make them feel comfortable and safe. So, this has been a big conversation for many causing the design world to expand to different outlets. Leaders have been a frequent topic here, because they require empathy in order to have people follow and trust them. Nobody wants to join something and feel misunderstood. Therefore, empathy has been expanding to places designers didn’t even know it would spread to. The Interaction Design Foundation stated: “If we develop solutions in isolation, without essential insights about our users, we may create solutions that completely miss the mark and thus be ignored by the market.” Empathy here was used for a business-related task, my point is that anyone can use empathy and should do so to create a better foundation. With this skill, a task can be exactly what the person or group wanted because of the form of better communication. This skill is so important to any career, it has brought people to do things that are typically uncomfortable or scary, just because someone was empathetic towards them.

Being empathetic isn’t about being nice, which is the assumption people often make; it’s about absorbing every detail about the problem to develop the knowledge necessary. The process of working empathy into our everyday lives takes time but, to create a tool that can provide opportunities makes it worth it. Empathizing provides insight into the problem to create ideas to work towards the solution. A Medium Corporation stated: “In order to solve a problem, we have to find the sweet spot between understanding from the person’s perspective and an objective outsider’s perspective.” Empathy is much more than just listening to a person, to get the full experience the designer or empathizer has to observe every aspect of the problem. Point identification is a continuous goal through the whole empathizing process.

Connection is necessary during this process to let the speaker feel comfortable, because of how vulnerable they have to be sharing their true feelings. So, for example, like a doctor, where sometimes it can be difficult for a patient to open up to possibly a complete stranger, the empathizer has to provide them with the feeling of being in a secure environment. With the feeling of comfort then the person will allow themselves to share what they’re feeling which will provide the listener a chance to absorb everything in order to build that connection further. Having the connection will make the process run smoother because the empathizer can be fully immersed. Journal of Ethics stated: “When a patient feels that a physician understands his condition and apprehensions, he may feel more comfortable confiding in the physician.” When the patient feels more comfortable the doctor who is the empathizer can absorb all the knowledge necessary.

Empathy can be used in any career with any type of person, something I did not know before two weeks ago. This skill goes beyond just listening to someone speak, it’s about immersing ourselves in the problem that is being given to us to understand to then find a solution.