Deep Empathy

The best way to learn is by doing. The quickest way to learn is through empathy.

It would be great to be an expert in everything and to have spent hours developing a knowledge base in hundreds of fields, but it’s just not possible. When you can’t get the hands-on experience, you need to understand those who have. 

IDEO’s famous Deep Dive on Nightline highlights this key aspect of the design process. In their assignment to redesign a shopping cart, the first step is to get outside the building and talk to experts in dealing with shopping carts. They talked to store managers, cart mechanics and professional shoppers. 

Through active listening and empathy they learned more in an hour than they would have spending weeks on the job. 

We must all seek to better understand others. You’ll find that listening to their story and understanding their life is a wildly efficient use of your time. Why spend months working at a company when you could have talked to a former employee who would have given you an inside perspective? 

Accelerate your learning by increasing your empathy.