Not all innovations are sustainable.

The ideal innovation process is the trifecta of desirability, feasibility and viability, an idea that originated from IDEO.

• Desirability
• Feasibility
• Viability

The sweet spot of innovation thus generated is called Design Thinking. If you miss on any one of the areas, the innovation idea becomes perilous; not only hurting the company’s bottom line but, also eroding the brand image.

Design thinking has a human-centered core. And hence the process always starts from desirability. 

So three questions to ask and check whether any idea or innovation is the right fit.

Desirability : Does this solution solve the right challenge/ pain point for the end user?

Feasibility: Does this solution make our businesses healthier and stronger?

Viability:  Does this solution contribute to the long term growth of the company economically and socially?

Design thinking is applicable to you, no matter whatever is your role or whatever industry you work in. Design thinking can help you develop sustainable innovative solutions based on the what your customers actually need.

To know more, on how you can generate sustainable solutions for you or your company, get in touch with us for a detailed conversation.

People make decisions based on what they feel. Products or services can be functional, but the true value is derived when we understand the emotions behind customer engagement. Think back on any memorable experiences, and it stands out because of the emotions it generated. 

Emotional Design helps you weave empathy in any transaction that you have with your customer. You align the solutions to meet their needs. Good emotional design elicits delight and confidence in the end user.

Donald Norman explains that emotional Design happens at three levels.

1. Visceral- Appearance
2. Behavioural- Functional
3. Reflective- Impact

To understand this, suppose you bought a smartphone.

1. You loved how it looked. The feel was exquisite when you held it. (Visceral)
2. When you tried its camera and got an extremely high resolution picture (Behavioural)
3. You started to think about your life with this device and how it could help you click amazing holiday pictures. (Reflective)

By understanding emotions, we can map-out decisions and improve experiences. It could be even as simple as how you went the extra mile to resolve a concern or save time for your client. 

If, emotional design at a reflective level helps instil a sense of uniqueness, confidence, freedom or wellbeing, it builds a strong brand image.

If this sparks your interest ,and you would love to know more on emotional design and how it can work for you, your team or your organisation do get in touch.

To think like a futurist, we need to be sharp and anticipate change. Futurists use a framework called ‘The cone of possibilities’. It helps devise an overall strategy by imagining many possible futures. 

The cone is simplified into 4 parts.

• The tip of the cone is today, and it stretches into the future on the right side. 
• The broadest part of the cone is where you can list down all the ‘possible’ futures. Asking ‘What if’ without boundaries.
• The most likely future would be the middle ‘probable’ part of the cone. It uses forecasting and logic.
• The bottom part of the cone is ‘preferred’ outcome. Something that you desire to make it happen and resonate with your values.

Let us visualize this

• Suppose you are a software developer today.
• The ‘possible’ future could be, to be a CTO in next five years. You can list as many futures as you want.
• The ‘probable’ future could be, to kick off an IT startup with some of your friends. 
• The ‘preferred’ future could be to have niche AI /Deep Learning enterprise, catering only a handful of clients with more volumes.

Identifying the patterns, the global industry trends and the macro-economic factors can help us think and predict about a wide array of futures in each segment. It then sets the tone for us to choose the right one and develop an act accordingly.

We need to remember that our futures are not carved in stone. Like Abraham Lincoln said

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 

Flexibility, has turned out to be a major driver to being competitive in the VUCA world, when we are constantly scouring for opportunities. Flexibility helps the organizations to be more creative and more nimble.  But flexibility usually comes at an expense of control. Control for processes, product/service quality or customer service which are the hygiene factors.

And hence, the choice between Flexibility or Control is a tightrope for the leaders. Pitching toward any one extreme can be precarious to the team and organization. To find a right balance, then becomes extremely vital.

Successful leaders have understood that having a paradox mindset prepares you for removing the need for consistency and find creative ways to balance the churn. It aims for more inclusive and collaborative solutions rather than ‘just this’ or ‘just that’.

A few steps to perfect the elusive balance as leaders, between flexibility and control could be

1. Increase Situational Awareness

Find out your dominant leadership style (directing or supporting) and  be ready to adapt to a style based on a particular situation.

2. Communicate clear desired outcomes with a purpose 

The ‘what’ and ‘why’, rather than ‘how’ can really help balance the alignment and autonomy.

3. Maintain an open and welcoming image

Allowing team members to come back seeking clarity or your experience.

4. Give and Receive specific as well as regular feedback

A two way process to receive and give feedback.

5. Ask more questions

Have I considered alternate approaches to this problem?

Am I open to new suggestions from others?

What is the best course for everyone involved?

And though the world is governed by this balance of winning and losing, as leaders we still can have our own win-win with both flexibility and control.

“Empathy can lead to distress and burnout in your own life.”

“Empathetic leaders are considered weak.”

“There is only so much empathy that we can have.”

“Empathy is overrated.”

Have you felt or heard any of these sentiments around empathy?

Let me start by asking a question. In which category would your organization fall? A B2B, a B2C, a C2C or a C2B? 

With whatever answer you have, would it be wrong if I said, that every organization is an H2H (Human to Human) organization? 

All the businesses, small or big, involve dealing with people whether it is outside or inside the organization. And hence it pays, in this hyper connected business environment, to have focus on the empathy factor and not just on the ROI. However, with resource crunch and competitive business environment, the focus always shifts on achieving the results and pushing the bottom line. If empathy is understood correctly and the ROE (Return On Empathy) is emphasized enough, maybe it will make for an appealing proposition.

Yes, empathy is a cliched term. And the simple definition of ‘Being in other person’s shoes’, fails to make an appropriate impact. 

Let me illustrate examples of two professionals Riya and Rishabh. Both of them ace at their performances and hence both are promoted as team leads, handling teams for the first time as managers.

Riya is very objective, confident, strong headed and expects only the best. She directs people and doesn’t find enough time or patience to listen to them. 

Rishabh on the other hand is very friendly, he has built a great rapport with the team in a short time. But the challenging decisions are not taken seriously, and timelines suffer.

If I were to ask you, who would be successful as a manager? 

Well the answer would be none. We need a right balance to upturn the dangers of being emotionally empathetic.

Empathy actually comes from a German word Einfühlung, meaning “feeling in.” And just as there are so many ways to feel, there are various ways to experience empathy.

Psychologists have defined that there are three types of empathy

1. Emotional Empathy
2. Cognitive Empathy
3. Compassionate Empathy

1. Emotional Empathy – ‘I feel what you are feeling’

This empathy is called ‘emotional contagion’. You catch the emotions of the people involved and mirror it as your own.

Positive: You can readily understand the emotions of the other person and build a good rapport and trust.

Negative: Can cause empathy overload leading to poor decisions or distress

2. Cognitive Empathy- ‘I can understand why you are feeling that way’

This empathy is called ‘perspective taking’. You can see and understand how the person is feeling without engaging in the emotions.

Positive: You can use it in business situations like negotiations or in motivation, where understanding the diverse viewpoint can help you deal better for win-win situations.  

Negative: Can ignore deep emotions or manipulate based on information.

3. Compassionate Empathy- ‘I can understand your feelings. How about if you/I can sort it out by….?’

This empathy is called ‘balancing mindfulness with compassion’. It is the most appropriate as it involves understanding about other person’s perspective and most crucially takes action to resolve the problem. 

It’s a balance that needs to be worked upon. Finding your own sweet spot that works for your relationships.

Some tips to build compassionate empathy

1. Listen Actively even to things not being said through tone and body language
2. Be mindfully present
3. Delay judgements and advice.
4. Encourage people to talk and ask more questions.
5. Create regular touchpoints – to engage with people

If engaged with the people in the right way, the ROE (Returns On Empathy) are ample.

1. Loyalty and Trust : Leading to more support, referrals and sales
2. Accountability and Ownership : Boosts productivity via more responsiveness,  creativity and innovation
3. Happy Work Culture: Fuels better communication, collaboration, lesser conflicts and lesser stress
4. Competitive Advantage: Elevates better customer need understanding and be more proactive 
5. Organization growth and long term success

Real Empathy moves from storytelling to storydoing. Anyone who invests in empathy, devotes to understanding the emotional needs of the stakeholders and aligns to meet them. A tangible ROE is guaranteed through lasting relationships, customer value, employee retention and resilience that is so crucial in the current times.

Do you like challenging roles and assignments?

Do you fail often and adapt quickly?

Do you seek feedback actively and regularly?

Do you continuously update your knowledge and expertise?

If you have said yes to all of the above, then voila you are a learning Ninja!

If not, read further.

Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock right in 70’s said “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

The two key attributes of success in any career are learning ability and agility. However, the research puts more emphasis on agility than ability. Learning ability is more IQ based while Learning Agility is more of an attitude combined with behavioral skills. So, agility starts where ability ends.

A study at Korn Ferry suggests this.

• People with more learning agility are 5 times more likely to be engaged at work.
• The organizations that employ learning agile people improve their profit margins by 25%, than their peer companies.
• Organizations promote employees with higher learning agility 2 times faster. So then, what is Learning Agility?

Learning Agility in simple words means, ’knowing what to do, when you don’t know what to do’. It means being fluid enough to harness on new experiences, to yield learnings that can help you ride out the complex and uncertain situations. People who show learning agility are more responsive, risk takers, resilient and exhibit growth mindset. And hence it is a reliable indicator for high order leadership skills.

In current VUCA times, Learning Agility becomes a necessary skill to possess. So, how can you be a Learning Ninja?

Learning Agility is not a single skill but a broad area encompassing five major spheres where you can develop, to improve your Learning Agility.

1. Change Agility : Deal effectively with the discomfort of change

• Experience new things
• Have passion for new experiences
• Have motivation to investigate uncertain situations

2. Mental Agility : Thinking Critically to solve complex problems

• Be curious
• Think laterally and outside the box
• Develop analytical thinking

3. People Agility : Understanding people to multiply collective performance

• Connect with people at an emotional level and show empathy
• Build rapport with diverse people
• Understand your impact on others

4. Results Agility : Delivering results in complex and uncertain situations

• Keep focus on the goals
• Be creatively confident
• Ready to fail and quick to adapt

5. Self Awareness : Being reflective and knowing themselves well

• Seek active feedback
• Be more mindful
• Reflect on your performance

The reality today requires new ways of working. The jobs of today may not even exist in future. In these highly uncertain times, nourishing these five sets of qualities can make you a skillful ‘Learning Ninja’ to slay all the future challenges and be successful.

This is where the ‘open-ended, exploratory, deeply human-centric, imaginative approach’ to problem solving comes into picture called Design thinking.

Design thinking now has become a buzz word across industries, made famous by Tim Brown (Chair at IDEO).

So, what is ‘Design Thinking’?

Audible, an Amazon company is the world’s largest producer and provider of spoken-word entertainment and audiobooks. During the lockdown, it made hundreds of books free for children as the schools were shut down. This business strategy had a human centred element that helped creating a positive brand image in mind of the end users.

‘Design thinking’ is a human centered approach, that helps to bring tangible outcomes at every touch point to deliver meaningful experiences to the end users.

Design thinking has been successfully integrated by fortune 500 companies like Apple, IBM, Nike, Starbucks and many more who have continuously shown, how it is a competitive edge and drives the business growth.

The five-phase model for design thinking was proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design Thinking at Stanford, USA

• Empathise – for whom do you want to solve which problems?
• Define – what do you want to solve?
• Ideate – which ideas can solve the problem?
• Prototype – what exactly is the solution?
• Test – what does the user think about your solution?

Design thinking might seem complicated, but it is built on a very simple empathy premise : to understand the needs and challenges by asking simple questions.

The term design in ‘design thinking’ doesn’t mean it is just limited to designers. Any team member from any professional background can start by embracing simple mindset shifts and tackling problems from a new direction.

The mindset that can help you don the designer hat.

1. Be obnoxiously curious
2. Focus on human values
3. Fearless of failure
4. Visualize your thinking
5. Embrace ambiguity
6. Be creatively confident
7. Inspire and be inspired

Design thinking is not about design, as much as about thinking. So dive deep and add one more tag to yourself- Designer!

We at Skillsbucket, conduct customised Design Thinking Training Programs. Check out our signature programs for more information. https://www.skillsbucket.in/signature-program/

• Structuring properly
  • but not too much A to do list along with timelines really helps you to structure your day. A 10 minutes kick off meeting when you start, really helps set up the expectations with others. Find a quiet area for work and also designate some ‘no work zones’ in the house. Its hard to relax when you associate those places with work
• Change out of your pyjamas & get ready for work at usual time
  • We have to treat it like a ‘real job’ or it wont be. Dressing up for work on time gets you into the work mode. Working from home blurs the boundary which hampers the focus and balance.
• Take a break but avoid too much caffeine
  • Little scheduled breaks acts like ‘Psychological segues’. Having coffee, reading or doing exercise can put you in the right working mindset.
• Crank up the communication
  • Out of sight, out of mind becomes a real problem when you are working from home. People feel less motivated and productive when they are working in isolation. Appreciating each other and being more vocal is the need of the day. Virtual coffees are a great way to connect and not miss the water cooler chats.
• Shut the door
  • “Create boundaries within your home that your family members understand. Dedicated working hours and scheduled breaks helps in improving productivity

Happy working from home!

All of us, innately have the desire to have things under our control. So what do you do in such “novel” situations where no one has a clue.

1. Determine what can you control There are many things in life we can’t control- everything from tiny disagreements to huge tragedies. And fixating ourselves on to bat soups or testing kits isn’t going to solve our problems. The only thing that we can control is our reactions to those situations. Instead of ruminating on the problems, we can focus on creating solutions. When we put our energies into what we can control, we become effective.
2. Focus on Influence We all know that we can plan a great party but we can’t make everyone have fun. Look at how you can motivate others. Be a good role model. Working from home can be tricky and that’s where you can be innovative, little things can help push up morale. Virtual coffee breaks or idle chatting can be a good idea.
3. The Guru Talk which always works

a. Breathe Mindfully: When you are overwhelmed, breathe deeply. You can control your breaths
b. Move your body: Regular Exercise. Helps with immunity, good sleep and reducing stress.
c. Remind yourself its not permanent: This too shall pass
d. Talk to people you trust: Create your safe circle. You don’t want more negativity than there is.
e. Be Kind : To yourself and to others. You can be a critic or a cheerleader. Choose Cheerleader. Always.