Design Thinking Starts with Empathy
10 MIN READAuthor: Erich Bolz, MA. Ed.
Vice President, Research and District Engagement
The Center for Educational Effectiveness
“The enemy of excellence is isolation.”
Aaron Walker
Introduction: Professional isolation in the principalship is a problem for administrators but also for everyone else in their care. In blog 1 in this series, we explored how administrators can exercise self-care through delegation, empowering others, recognizing false narratives, and sharing leadership. We noted that some strategies, though intuitive, only increase isolation which is the enemy of excellence. In blog 2, we focused on understanding the benefits of having professional mentors and coaches, and ideally both.
Today, we’ll focus on the role of a counterintuitive engine of innovation that can make a world of difference for you and others: empathy. We’ll delve into how to leverage an empathic approach to problem-solving so that you experience renewed vision, connection, and breakthroughs where previously there were barriers.
What’s Empathy Got to Do with Design?
Think about what keeps you up at night. Is there a challenge so big that it eclipses other worthy candidates for your attention? If so, you have a real design challenge. You need to design a solution that will work. But what’s empathy got to do with designing solutions? Turns out – everything.
All human innovation starts as an act of service in response to a recognized need. We see a gap; we seek to fill a void. Problems beg for a solution to be designed. But problems that go undetected or ignored do not have the benefit of designers working intentionally to meet those needs.
In fact, quality design ideas flow from the first step in any design process: the empathy step. As solution designers, we must first think of who will experience and benefit from whatever it is that we are designing. To design an effective solution, we must first answer the question,
“Who am I designing this solution for and what are their needs?
In a nutshell, that’s the empathy step in a design process.
What Are the Benefits of Beginning with Empathy?
Empathy involves actively seeking to understand and connect with another person's experiences with a genuine desire to provide some form of tangible support. In contrast, pity acknowledges someone else’s plight but offers only a trite, “I’m sorry…. that must be awful for you.” It’s a pity that pity sees the need but takes no action.
Think about it. Virtually every business is in the business of designing products or services by understanding their customers’ needs. As a customer, you appreciate it when a company has thoughtfully designed something you have purchased or accessed it because it anticipated and met your needs. Whether it’s a car, an event, a meal, or a piece of technology – you appreciate good design. That’s because good design is evidence of someone else’s empathy in action toward you.
In educational settings, the benefit of leading with empathy is that it helps accelerate your insights into designing solutions to problems experienced by others. This is true whether you are designing something for parents, staff, or students. After all, you are not designing widgets to sell but are engaging in a continual process of designing (and redesigning) the learning conditions that your learners experience.
Perhaps you’ve never thought of it this way. That’s understandable but it is something to consider as it may be impacting your effectiveness as lead solution designer in education.
Examples of Design in Education
Put your magic “design goggles” on and you’ll see there are already many examples available in schools that demonstrate how empathy drives well-designed responses. For example, facilities are thoughtfully designed under the ADA with the accessibility needs of students, staff, and parents in mind. Without such design, barriers prevent physical access. In the classroom, those familiar with universal design principles will recognize how CAST’s universal design for learning (UDL) framework emphasizes the role of designing learning conditions (affective, recognition, and strategic networks of the brain) with each learner in mind. By design, CAST has emphasized the role of the affective domain and reconfigured its guidelines from prior versions to reflect this. If information can’t be perceived, it’s inaccessible. If it’s perceived but creates fear, other brain functions are placed on standby until the threat is resolved. If the needs of learners are skipped over, barriers to learning remain unaddressed.
To protect against this, the IDEA requires IEP teams to engage through the lens of a student’s Evaluation which documents their need and eligibility for specially designed instruction which the Council for Exceptional Children describes as “instruction that is tailored to a particular student.” The IDEA requires the Evaluation to occur first – because instructional solutions should not be “one size fits all” or generic.
So, returning to what problem causes you to lose sleep, it’s highly likely that the problem is only going to be addressed by shifting your perspective to find an answer to the question, “Who am I designing this solution for and what are their needs?
Perceptual Data Gives Us New Ways of Seeing Things
Marcel Proust once said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
Perceptual data is actually a sophisticated form of listening. As film maker and master storyteller Erahm Christopher has so poignantly depicted in Listen, listening is the paramount duty of adults and professionals wanting to align their design with the needs of others. And, there is a “dangerous disconnect” when we do otherwise.
Collecting, reviewing, and turning perceptual data into simple, doable, scalable actions are critical steps to ensure the needs of those closest to the issue at the center of the process to design innovative solutions.
Our good friends Chuck Salina and Suzann Girtz in their powerhouse school transformation book, Powerless to Powerful: Leadership for School Change, state, “The use of perceptual evidence is perhaps the most powerful pivot point for creating rapid change in a school that perceives itself as powerless.”
So why relegate perceptual data and for that matter other qualitative data to second fiddle when perceptual data is what is needed to create conditions for change? Some reasons we often hear include:
Perceptual data are just opinions, not facts. Your opinion is, in fact, a fact!
You can’t measure perception. FALSE! Well designed surveys do this.
Perceptions are subject to change. Agreed and to change reality, perception must change as well. Let’s measure perception and use it to lead to transformation!
I’m not sure “perceptual data” would survive in the business world. Oh contraire, mon frere. Check out what Indeed.com has to say about the power of perceptual mapping.
Perhaps your own experience using perceptual data as a leader is limited. We encourage you to consider using perceptual surveys designed to provide you with a 360-degree understanding of that pesky problem that is keeping you up at night. With data and highly accessible perceptual mapping visualizations that point to potential solutions, you are well on your way to converting your empathy into action. To get a jump on this, check out CEE’s surveys designed to provide the insights you need.
Empathy in Action – by Design
But, after we’ve gathered perceptual data, how do we actually use it? Here’s one option: empathy interviews.
Empathy interviews are carefully crafted, open-ended conversations designed to elicit genuine stories borne of the user’s experience. Such stories provide thematic perceptual data that can be utilized to improve any process, system, or experience.
The Northwest Regional Education Service District (Oregon) provides technical assistance to school districts and has put together a number of resources that will give you a sense of how conducting empathy interviews could fit within an overall school and/or district improvement process.
Perhaps a real life example will help to illustrate how this works. A new online school was struggling with student engagement… yes, there was too little of it!
The wise staff recognized that while they themselves are indeed wise and have many years of experience, it would be advantageous to ask the students about their experiences, needs, and wants to begin addressing their engagement problem. Each teacher identified three students they would interview and asked questions such as:
Tell me about a time you felt successful at school.
Tell me about a time school was frustrating for you.
Share with me how our school schedule is helping you be successful.
Tell me about a time you felt a teacher really cared about you.
Tell me about a time you didn't feel supported by your school.
Share with me a time the school schedule was a barrier to your learning.
They asked these questions of a diverse group of students to ensure a variety of perspectives. The interviews were conducted, and the data recorded. But, then what? Themes were identified in the data. Themes that told a story of several unmet needs the students were experiencing. Identifying these unmet needs gave the staff the opportunity to brainstorm solutions to these unmet needs.
You can watch the result of this process in the St. Paul Public Schools that resulted in implementation of several learner-centered solutions in a short timeframe that worked for students and teachers. The bonus of students feeling good about playing a part in the improvement process was baked into the process from the get go. As noted in the design thinking video, listening was the first step taken.
How Empathy Interviews Can be Used to Design Any Solution
The process followed by this staff can be applied to just about any problem occurring in your setting by following 8 practical steps:
Clearly define the problem to address (e.g., lack of engagement).
Prepare for the empathy interviews.
Conduct the empathy Interviews.
Process the empathy interview data (and emphasize new learning).
Ideate solutions to address the unmet needs that came to light.
Develop a couple prototypes of possible solutions – nothing fancy… just prototypes.
Share the prototypes with those it would impact and gather feedback.
Implement the best solution designed to meet the needs and monitor it to celebrate its great results!
Perhaps you would like to implement this 8-step process. Great! But perhaps you feel the task is too daunting and would appreciate support the first time through. Fear not! If you are looking for guidance, simply head over to this site.
It’s worth doing, whether on your own or with a guide, because perceptual data obtained through empathy interviews provides a profound understanding of the needs and experiences of students, teachers, administrators… actually anybody! By following this 8-step innovation process, we transform insights into tangible solutions that drive school improvement. From defining problems and conducting empathy interviews to ideating solutions and implementing them, we create a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Let’s embrace the power of perceptual data and empathy, as they pave the way for transformative change and a brighter future for our schools.
Join an Empathetic Design Community of Professionals: Mastermind PD
To maximize your use of perceptual tools, consider engaging colleagues through a Mastermind professional learning opportunity. A Mastermind process is a collaborative and structured approach where a group of individuals with complementary skills and expertise come together to collectively address and solve problems, share knowledge, and support each other's growth and success. Together, professionals share specific problems of practice and exchange ideas on how best to address these challenges.
It typically involves regular meetings or sessions where participants contribute their insights, perspectives, and ideas to help one another achieve their goals and overcome challenges. The Mastermind process fosters a supportive and accountable environment that promotes learning, brainstorming, and mutual accountability among its members.
Skip the drive, but keep driving innovation through one of CEE’s Masterminds for principals and central administrators by contacting us at info@effectiveness.org. Here are just a few reasons why Masterminds are the most impactful, efficient, and effective PD opportunities you will engage in include:
1) Empathetic – every session starts by listening to a colleague share their problem of practice.
2) Just in time (JIT) design.
3) Inclusive - everyone contributes as best practice wisdom of the group and solution-design thinking is a collaborative effort.
4) Curation and resource sharing to support adult-learning best practices.
5) Nested learning – as close to the “problems of practice” as you possibly can be without having the same office, desk, or chair.
6) Networking, you need a tribe to do this work and your Mastermind cohort provides just that support.
Masterminds are one of the kindest, or self-empathetic, things you can do for yourself. They are designed with your complex professional learning needs in mind.
What Are the Potential Risks of Not Leading with Empathy?
The greatest risk to not leading with empathy and creating innovative solutions is maintaining the status quo and solidifying barriers for others. To paraphrase the immortal words of Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you? And them?”
It’s natural to hunker down when the going gets tough but we need to remember that solutions created in isolation also kills brainstorming that could be possible. If we isolate ourselves from our network, put on the brave costume of the heroic leader while drifting apart from our mentors and other network supports, we will not be fully engaged solution designers.
The point is that starting with anything other than empathy is highly likely to take you and your staff down a path that leads to frustration, false starts and missteps all by (bad) design. As has been described in this entire series, and specifically in this entry, there is a better way!
An Open Invitation to Connect
In our first two blogs, we identified how to better design existing time, resources and sharing power with colleagues. We also connected the self-care dots around the value of accessing coaches and mentors. While underutilized, none of these ideas are new. To experience a breakthrough, avoid burnout and obtain balance leading to longevity, innovation in leadership roles is essential, not optional.
Incorporating these tools and processes into our work habits and building capacity within our organizations to better serve the needs of others is important work. We encourage you to strive to improve, become more efficient and effective, and therefore more balanced in your approach to work over time.
This entire series - Self-care by Design – has been designed with you in mind to help you create the conditions you need to not just survive, but to thrive!
We look forward to the amazing new and innovative ways you will apply these strategies in service of others – and how you’ve benefitted in the process. We encourage you to share how you were able to design a solution for that problem that used to give you so many restless nights!
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