DESIGNING WITH EMPATHY
websitebuilder • May 12, 2016
As we think about where design can take us, we are reminded of the powerful customer connections that can occur. How powerful those connections will be is a variable that can be strategized at the design stage. That is why design is of ultimate importance.
Additionally, we have to recognize that purely by how we design a product or service, we are driving that customer experience positively or negatively. That is why reflection about purpose must precede design because design will either support or thwart purpose. As an institution, as an individual, you will be either supporting or thwarting your purpose. Ken Wong is the designer of the computer game, Monument Valley. He shares similar comments when he analyzes the game design process (“Empathy Is Required” Bloomberg Businessweek , 4/11/16–4/24/16, p. 82):
“ Game design is a discipline that you can get good at. . . . It’s about being tuned in to what makes a game work, what makes an experience fun. With our previous game, Monument Valley, we made it short intentionally so people could get to the payoff at the end. For a lot of people, it’s the first game they were able to finish. We got a nice letter from a guy who had sustained a brain injury; he used to really enjoy computer games, but after that most of them were too intense. ”
Wong is absolutely correct. Some intelligent empathy is needed here. If you don’t know what your customer wants, then you won’t be able to put yourself or your product or your service into that place where the customer is able to say, yes, that is what I wanted. However, intelligent empathy will give you the opportunity to support your purpose.
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We explore the overuse or inappropriate use of the words "honest," "honesty," and "honestly." Much of the overuse or inappropriate use of these words is in contexts that intrinsically message the audience that the speaker is not trustworthy. I call the overuse or inappropriate use of these words in this context HONESTY VALIDATORS because the speaker believes they validate the truth being spoken. We need a solution to this problem. My solution is to replace these honesty validators with CLARITY VALIDATORS. Instead of trying to be honest, try to be clear. Replacing "honest," "honesty," and "honestly," with "clear," "clarity," and "clearly," produces significantly more benefit to the speaker and to the audience.
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Although anyone can and will criticize higher education, millennials are evidently smart enough to know its value. In spite of the horror stories about student loan debt, academic disasters, and wrong career turns, millennials have boasted one of the highest graduation rates of any generation to date. Generation Z may soon surpass them too as Laura A. Scione, managing editor of eCampus News reports : “ Despite growing questions around the value of college and return on investment in tuition, just 25 percent of Generation Z students say they believe they can have a rewarding career without going to college, compared to 40 percent of millennials. Eighty percent of Generation Z respondents and 74 percent of millennials agree that college either has a fair amount of value, is a good value, or is an excellent value. Only 20 percent of Generation Z students and 26 percent of millennials said college has ‘little value’ or ‘no value at all.’ ” Good for them! The statistics remain on their side—and the side of anyone who pursues higher education. Anthony P. Carnevale is the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Based on his research, that trend will only continue (Gillian B. White “Those Savvy Millennials” The Atlantic , May 2015, p. 38): " In 1973, 32% of jobs did not even require a high school diploma, 9% required a bachelor’s degree, and 7% required a master’s degree or higher. It is projected that by 2020, 12% of jobs will not require a high school diploma, 24% will require a bachelor’s degree, and 11% will require a master’s degree or higher. " Derek Newton wrote an article entitled “Please Stop Asking Whether College Is Worth It” in which his opening declaration gets right to the point: “ Colleges and universities are still the best, most direct path to a good career that pays well. ” In addition to those insights, the unemployment figures consistently reveal the enduring value of higher education. The seasonally adjusted July 2019 unemployment rate for persons not having a high school diploma is 5.1% ( Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Having a high school diploma drops that rate to 3.6% and some college or a two-year degree drops it further to 3.2%. Pretty good trending, would you agree? Finally, if we look at people having a four-year degree, a graduate degree, or a doctoral degree, the unemployment rate is a low 2.2%. Higher education’s edge is especially clear when you consider the range of these numbers over the education level. Look at the two ends of the spectrum: less-than-high school (5.1%) versus a four-year degree or higher (2.2%). Consistently, regardless of the measured time, the unemployment rate for a less-than-high-school-educated worker is two to four times larger than for the college-degreed worker. This is why, when people seek my counsel about career planning, higher education remains one of my most significant emphases. Education pays. Degrees still rock. Regardless of how good or bad the economy is, regardless of how many individual academic and career disasters can be cited, and regardless of how loudly the antidegree crowd howls, you are still in a better position having a degree than not having a degree. The good news for the millennials and Generation Z is that they have arrived at the same conclusion and now they will enjoy the benefits.
A few months ago, US News reported on the academic admissions scandal, Operation Varsity Blues : " The case—the largest college admission scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice—exposes a long-running racketeering scheme dating back to 2011, in which parents paid an admissions consultant a combined $25 million to help students cheat on college entrance exams and to get them into elite colleges and universities as recruited athletes when in reality they were not athletes. ” This was a profoundly disappointing situation that displays the worst of our human failure on many levels. In addition to its magnitude, this particular scam especially grabbed my attention due to its higher-education context. It occurs within the confluence of many deeply significant factors: Mentoring developing young adults. Student life transitions including high school to college, and college to the professional world. Parental ethics and leadership. Student accountability and fairness. Respect for the processes and institutions of higher education. The responsibilities that are intrinsic to power and privilege. Personal character and integrity. Student character and integrity. Parental character and integrity. Professional character and integrity. Societal and academic implications. These are weighty matters that should give us all cause for concern. Specifically, they should remind us of six essential ethical realities: 1—Power and privilege do not equal immunity. Whether in the Spider-Man world (“with great power comes great responsibility”) or in sacred writings (“to whom much is given, much is required”), we understand that large influence travels with commensurate accountability. Just because a parent might hold a position of influence, have a prominent name, or possess significant fiscal assets does not mean the law of the land and academic admissions policies do not apply. Many benefits come with position, name, and assets—immunity from the law and organizational policies should not be among them. 2—Bad outcomes can manifest from an apparent good heart. A pure heart never guarantees a noble outcome. That is because all of us are subject to change and sometimes that change equals corruption. A parent of a one-month-old child might begin with a pure heart that leads to noble outcomes. However, fast forward that same parent 17 years and now vicariously experiencing that child’s college admissions stress. Do we have an outcome guarantee? Of course, it depends on the parent. Many noble outcomes ensue, but many does not equal all. Some parents in their quest to provide the best for their child will succumb to the temptation to step outside proper boundaries. Doing so is seemingly justified by that apparent good heart: “ I’m doing this because I want to give my child the best. ” Although we can all to some extent understand this sentiment, it in no way excuses or justifies the unethical actions and outcomes. If anything, it reinforces how vulnerable we all are. Therein lies the need for a constant ethical scrutiny over ourselves and our communities. 3—Unethical practices to gain entry into an ethical institution fundamentally disqualify the candidate. On the most basic sensible and philosophical level, by definition any ethical institution must deny any candidate entry when that entry attempt was unethically based. Any other action makes a mockery of the ethical institution and its entry process. Our academic institutions are among the tallest pillars of our humanity. The fundamental preservation of their purity must remain a constant commitment by every human being directly or indirectly connected to them. 4—Falsifying your child's profile only immerses that child into a universe that is fundamentally and unfairly built on false pretenses. When we enter into a new universe by virtue of truth and integrity, we do the best service to ourselves and others. To enter into a new universe not arrived at via truth and integrity will degrade and undermine all aspects of that new universe both for ourselves and others. Going into a new universe is something that the student should want to do by being his or her authentic best person. You cannot be your authentic best person without first being that person. In being that person, you then genuinely display that person. Therefore, no one can be that best person without truth and integrity. 5—Secretly shielding your child from the consequences of that child's behavior, aptitudes, and performance vehemently disrespects that child's personhood, and this is an abuse of your parenthood. Parenthood is an extremely personal, overwhelming, grave, complicated, rewarding, painful, amazing, and beautiful role. However, none of those adjectives imply that the parent owns that child. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the child is “on loan” to the parent for a limited time, during which the parent has a stewardship responsibility. An intrinsic stewardship component of parenthood is releasing that child from your tutelage. That releasing process begins the moment the child is born and slowly continues for nearly two decades (in most cases). Although parents may struggle to varying degrees with the releasing process, each parent generally embraces the releasing process out of a respect for the child’s personhood. Fundamentally, the best action a parent can take is to respect the child’s personhood; the worst action a parent can take is to disrespect the child’s personhood. When you send your child out into the real world, anything that you directly or indirectly do to disrespect that child’s personhood does that child no favors. Rather, it does that child an inexcusable disfavor. 6—The university should be the grooming and proving ground for the professional world. From the student’s first connection to the college, the grooming and proving ground springs into action. If the student takes this opportunity seriously, then the stage is set for an ongoing personal and professional growth experience hosted by that college. It is an extremely significant academic development opportunity while simultaneously presenting somewhat of a preface to the yet-to-come extremely significant professional development opportunity that more fully continues postgraduation. Lifelong patterns embed themselves into how that student executes personal and professional growth. That total process deserves and demands nothing less than a student’s pure authentic personal and professional investment. Polluting any aspect of that process by deceptive practices is reprehensible. CONCLUSION Navigating higher education was never intended to be a walk in the park. Young people and their parents must understand this. However, by embracing these six ethical realities, we will navigate higher education with virtue, class, and character—and those are the inner assets of the soul that no academic credential can provide.