Blog

Blog by Richard Brynteson, Ph.D.

 

Empathy

1930s PORTRAIT OF ELDERLY WHITE HAIR WOMAN SMILING WEARING PINCE-NEZ GLASSES

Empathy is important for emotional intelligence and operating pleasantly and effectively in the world.  Empathy is also important for innovation.  The more we deeply understand and study the “other,” the more we can aid them with helpful innovations.

Take the “senior suit.”  Innovators (at the Idea Lab at MIT) invented a “clunky” suit, to synthesize an elder body.  Professor Nancy Harrower at Concordia University (my employer) has her students wear it and try to navigate a mall, as a senior would.  They then conduct ideation sessions develop new innovations that might be helpful to the elderly.

How can you get into the shoes, or under the skin, of your target market and more deeply understand them?

Written by: Richard Brynteson

Email: brynteson@csp.edu

Have to be new?

great tit (parus major) in nesting box, ile de france, europe, france, europe - birdhouse stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Have to be new?

Does an innovation have to be new? No.  An innovation can be taking an idea from one realm and transferring it to another arena.  For examples, when my friend Dan Ferrise was president of Minnesota Prison Industries (where inmates manufactures furniture, docks and other things), he brought in the discipline of business plans from the private sector.  In so doing, he transformed this organization from losing millions of dollars each year to making money.  That made the taxpayers happy.

What innovation in another industry can you transport and make useful and profitable?  Re-inventing the wheel is over-rated.  Adapting and re-tweaking are under-rated.

Written by: Richard Brynteson

Email: brynteson@csp.edu