Paula Land: Empathy, Change, and CATs - CS Seattle

Empathy, Change, and CATs What I Learned at CS Forum Paula Land

SessionsEmpathy: Content Strategys HiddenDeliverableCorey Vilhauer, Blend InteractiveEmbracing Your Role as a Change AgentJonathan Kahn, Together London

Common Themes• Soft skills—less focus on tactics, strategy, deliverables as the starting point• Listening and reframing• Being advocates• Change requires changing organizations• Overcoming fear, uncertainty• Failure is okay

EmpathyDefinition: “The act of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another…” “The trend towards greater and greater customerempowerment requires a deeper and deeper understanding of customer needs.” --Gerry McGovern

How to do it• Replace Content Strategy with People Strategy• Practice empathy not just with the people who are the consumers of the content, but with the client (or team, co-worker, boss, editor…)

How to do it• Be curious – Ask questions• Be clear and deliberate – Get to a shared understanding of terms – Consistency promotes trust• Be conniving – Identify strengths and play to them – Use politics as leverage• Be a teacher – Provide tools

“Your job isn’t to make the change happen –only your client can do that. Your job is topresent the change, understand the issues thatwill serve as barriers to that change, and walk abit in their shoes.” --Corey Vilhauer

Change• Change is hard• Failure is certain, unavoidable, necessary• Content strategy work involves systemic change• You can’t solve problems without changing organizations

Traditional organizational models• Top-down• Hierarchical“…the idea of limiting communications, so thatthey flow only from one layer of the hierarchy tothe next, was part of the very design of thesystem at the dawn of managerial culture.” Here Comes Everybody, 2008 CLAY SHIRKY

Mind shifts and power shifts• Moving from product to service• From consumer to customerTo bring about systemic change we combat:• Denial about change• Org-centric thinking

The arguments against change• My organization is too complex• It’s different in a large company• It’s different in a small company• It’s different in non-profits• It’s different in higher ed• We can’t do this agency-side• This is impossible in government

Areas of focus• Service design• Cross-channel UX and CS• Web and digital governance• Learning lessons from the lean startup and agile movements

How to be an agent of change1. Let yourself be vulnerable (make mistakes)2. Fight the culture of shame3. Embrace failure4. Get out of the building

“Denial about change, silo-centric thinking, and poor governance and strategy lead to disappointing user experience outcomes and substantial business risk. As web professionals, we can’t be effective until we become agents of change.” --Jonathan Kahn

Sourceshttp://www.slideshare.net/blendinteractive/empathy-content-strategys-hidden-deliverable-cs-forum-2012http://eatingelephant.com/2012/10/empathy/http://www.slideshare.net/jdkahn/embracing-your-role-as-a-change-agentcontent-strategy-forum-2012#btnNext

Strategic Contentwww.strategiccontent.com Content Insightwww.content-insight.com @content_insight

Paula Land: Empathy, Change, and CATs - CS Seattle

by Misty Melissa Weaver on Dec 17, 2012

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