empathy used to be an infrequent word in the boardroom, and many organizations firmly believed that if you wanted results, you needed to steer the ship with an iron fist. Thankfully this is no longer the case, and the notion of authentic leadership is starting to metabolize across global business leaders, creating a competitive advantage for those who lead with empathy.
Empathy is critical in understanding employees and customers, improving your offerings, driving efficiencies, and improving ROI. It’s also critical in improving how we interact with technology: Realizing the full value of your technology mandates a focus on how human users interact with platforms, systems, and processes. The idea applies both to your employees using technology in the flow of their daily work, and your customers who experience the end product.
Today, COVID-19 has undeniably accelerated digital transformation as leaders seek business continuity, so a focus on empathy is even more important. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI ) and cloud are helping ensure companies maintain customer and stakeholder trust and keep remote workforces connected. Yet across the globe, employees are reporting fatigue – with change management, with Zoom meetings, with the technology that underpins their working day.
Combatting this fatigue requires investment in empathetic human-technology interactions. In other words, we need technology to “speak human.”
To realize the value of tech investment, people need to quickly and effectively become proficient with the system’s capabilities. User adoption is a leading indicator of success, as the easier it is for people to interact with the technology, the more likely they will utilize it habitually.
However, to become fully adept at mastering technology, users need guidance. Instead of investing in training processes that adapt the user to the system, ensure continual guidance and contextual help by investing in technology that adapts to the users’ needs: technology that is built with empathy.
It’s well known that many enterprise technology transformation projects fail to deliver their business case. This burden of failure was traditionally placed upon users’ inability to master new systems and processes, to adapt to the change.
Going forward, program leaders must increase project budget allocations to improve human and technology interactions to ensure the technology is easily adopted at speed and scale.
The key is to change how technology is implemented, and lead with human-centered, empathetic design. That design should not only promote ease of use, but also be laser focused on the users’ needs and desired outcomes.
For an employee user, that could be improving innovation and productivity. For a customer, it could be delivering a delightful experience. This must be factored into every project from the outset, with the investment, technology, and skill set to ensure success. If you plan for this your likelihood of success will be an order of magnitude bigger – it is the single most important predictor of success for any digital transformation project.
