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Brand strategy

The Power of Realizing Empathy

Posted by on 09 April 2014
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At FUSE 2014 in Chicago this morning, Seung Chan (Slim) Lim,
Designer & Researcher, Author, Realizing
Empathy,
talked to us about the power of realizing empathy and how it
translates to brand strategy and design today.
Originally, Slim was actually trained as a computer
scientist, then he went into human-centered design. Later, he spent almost four
years conducting research at an art school, which inspired him to then immerse
himself into the act of making things with his hands with art and even his
whole body with dancing and acting.
Slim's background and research lays a solid foundation of
how to realize empathy. So, what exactly is empathy? Empathy is the experience an
event where we feel as if we are embodying or understanding the context of another
marked by a feeling of connection/oneness/resonance. Specifically, realizing
empathy is the process of how to go from point A to point B and traveling that
distance.
How can you develop empathy?
There are four key principles that guide developing empathy,
according to Slim, which include respecting, listening, considering, and acting.
Respecting means to look differently and create value from others differences.
Listening is to make meaning and be present and inquiring, willing to unlearn
and relearn. Next, considering means to make metaphors and build a language of
expression based on shared experiences. Lastly, acting is to be sincerely
honest and tell the story of who you are in the moment, while you are willing
to be vulnerable in the process.
'Whenever you are having difficulty realizing empathy, there
is some sort of conflict that you need to resolve,' Slim said. 'In order to do
so, you need awareness, care and ability to resolve that conflict.'
Slim explained that ultimately, realizing empathy is creating
a shared language - finding a shared experience that intersects the two
experiences together to create a shared memory.
To see more highlights of Slim's keynote and more FUSE 2014
presentations, visit our event archive here: http://eventifier.co/event/FUSE14

About the Author: Amanda
Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and
print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing,
and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR's blogs
including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business
Analysts
. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a
Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the
technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow
her at @AmandaCicc.
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