[Sigia-l] Empathy

[Andrew]

Christopher Fahey wrote:
> How have we come to claim empathy as a faculty we posess and utilize more
> than people in other professions do? 
>
>   
Hi Christopher,

I can't make the logical jump between "a certain level of empathy is a 
useful thing in most IA engagements" (which I believe is true) and "IAs 
are more empathetic than other professionals" (which I believe is 
unsupportable by the available evidence).

Probably, a better discussion would be how to cultivate and use that 
empathy in those situations that require it. There is the classic UCD 
"putting yourself in the other guy's shoes" stuff, the times when a 
colleague's parent is ill, the times when you understand that your 
supervisor has a massive concern about the project not meeting schedule 
and you can allay these fears through, say, working prototypes for them 
to show their boss.

Cheers, Andrew