Describes a framework for empathic innovation. You can read more about this framework in my blog: http://babak.farshchian.com/2014/06/23/empathic-innovation/

1. Sick building syndrome
A framework for empathic innovation

2. Sick building syndrome (SBS) is used to describe situations in which building occupants
experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a
building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. A 1984 World Health
Organization report suggested up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide
may be subject of complaints related to poor indoor air quality.

3. "I used to work a lot with your group.
But gradually we lost contact. We got
the impression that you always wanted
to sell your solutions to us. You stopped
listening to our problems."
Anonymous (rich) ex-customer of ours.

4. Think about a major deliverable you have been working on for
the last month
• How well do you know the intended user of the deliverable,
i.e. the one who will gain benefit from the deliverable?
– 5) I know the person, he is a good friend of mine. We have talked a lot
about his problems that are addressed by this deliverable.
– 4) I know the person, we have exchanged some emails.
– 3) I don't know any user in person, but we have done our research to
define personas, i.e. archetypical users.
– 2) I don't know who the users are, but plan to find out.
– 1) I don't know who the users are, and to be honest, I don't care (or, I
think I should care but practically I will not care).

5. Nurture a givers' culture
Learn to listen
Learn to acquire
Add value
Alwaysevaluateand
validate
FEI (Framework for Empathic Innovation)

6. Nurture a givers' culture
• All of us are one of three types:
– Takers: Take without returning.
– Givers: Give without asking.
– Matchers: Give, but take equally.
• Which type are you?
• What do our partners get for working with us?
• What do we want to achieve by working with
partners?

7. Nurture a givers' culture
• Givers constitute the 5% at the bottom of the
success ladder.
• Givers also constitute the 5% at the top of the
success ladder.
• If you are not a giver, you cannot listen.

8. Learn to listen
• You cannot listen if you plan to take.
• Empathic listening: Listening to understand,
not to give advise.
• If you are not a giver, you cannot listen
empathically.

9. Learn to acquire
• Acquire defined:
– to locate and track (a moving target) with a
detector, as radar. Military def. (Dictionary.com)
• Listening is not enough, you need to go
deeper.
• Good methods available (interviews,
observations, paper prototyping, etc.)

10. Add value
• We are all so good at it.
• Say no more.
• (PS: This is by the way what we get paid for)

11. Evaluate and validate
• How good are we at this?
• What methods do we use?
• Internal validation: Post mortems (too late, what
about pre mortems or mid mortems?)
• External validation: Do we ask the partners what
they think about us?
• Do we validate all the steps? Do we evaluate
frequently enough?

12. Nurture a givers' culture
Learn to listen
Learn to acquire
Add value
Alwaysevaluateand
validate
No short cuts.
No jumps.
Sorry.

13. Nurture a giver's culture
Learn to listen
Learn to acquire
Add value
Alwaysevaluateand
validate
Can be outsourced to anyone
with a much lower salary than
us

14. Are we more or less empathic
than Norwegian municipalities?

15. Takk!
Let's open some more windows!
From: We will be the most
preferred research institute in
Europe,
To: We will make our partners
best in their business