Disrupting Organizations with Empathy

When I attended Michigan State University the grounds staff had the interesting challenge of dealing with the makeshift paths that students forged while walking to class. These footpaths could be spotted all over campus — leading to every lecture hall. Of course, if the path wasn't paved, that didn't stop us from traveling on our intended trajectory.

When you approach Beaumont Tower at the heart of campus, you'll see an interesting array of sidewalks. There is a distinct pattern of angles and meanderings — and each serves the students that walk there on cold and snowy Michigan mornings. Ultimately, these paths were legitimized with concrete, graciously supporting their safe journey.

It was simple.

Follow the students' lead and pave a path behind them.

When considering how we might support employees, we've likely made that challenge more complicated than it needs to be. In many situations, we can improve work environments with simple, direct strategies. Applying empathy for example, can take us a long way down this road — paving paths for employees to do their best work.

Defined as "the ability to identify with the attitudes or emotions of another individual", empathy has helped us innovate in so many sectors. Forward thinking organizations, for example, hold great empathy for their potential customers. They design products that not only appeal to our emotions and senses, but address the problems we wrestle with in our daily lives. In each product, process or service — there is a little of us represented.

As long as we have empathy, I believe we'll have innovation.

The same truth applies to the developing frameworks that support our employees. With empathy, we can achieve significant advances not only the way we work, but how we ultimately feel about our work lives. Whether we are considering leadership (See how empathy affects perceived leadership here), feedback, career development or work spaces — empathy matters.

Viewing work life from another's perspective, can reap powerful results. We need to follow behind our employees and support their journey — just as those paths served students. Measuring our workplace problems is simply not enough to encourage healthy workplaces.

Here are just a few opportunities to apply it to work life:

• Examine what your team members need most. Last month I asked readers what the single most important element they required to be successful. The responses were both thought provoking and varied. Most would not be discussed during the course of our everyday work; Trust, respect, recognition, career development, increased challenge, autonomy, increased positivity and open communication. It's difficult to imagine that important topics such as these still remain unaddressed.
• Look at career development from all of the angles. Organizational goals and career goals can intersect, but we cannot accomplish this without exploring employee perspectives. These discussions can openly acknowledge the unstated exchange relationship between employee and employer that operates each and ever day at work. A dialogue to examine this relationship honestly, is necessary to sustain healthy workplaces.
• Develop feedback that matters. Yearly performance reviews are at best a nostalgic practice, and often serve no one well. They fail to offer the information we all require to adjust our behavior in quickly evolving environments. We need fuel to focus behavior in the right direction — and feedback operates as that fuel. Feedback "deserts" only serve to alienate team members. Legitimize feedback channels that don't simply tick HR boxes, and fill a real need.

How can we apply empathy to workplaces? Please share your thoughts.

Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. She is a Consulting Psychologist at Allied Talent. Their new tool, The Alliance Diagnostic examines how organizational culture supports entrepreneurial thinking and career growth.