Start with Empathy
Reimagine your learning experience
I taught my first design thinking class this week. We combined Prof. Geraldo Campos’ class and Prof. Carolina Rubin’s class for this session, so it was a big group of 60 students. All students are undergraduates in business management. We had a handful of students who could speak English in the class but language was a barrier. The plan was that I would speak in English and Prof. Carolina would translate. However, I will be honest, we were off to a rough start. Things got lost in translation, students were confused and I felt like I was losing the class. In the first 30–45 minutes, both Carolina and I felt like we were going to crash and burn pretty badly.
Design thinking challenges us to set aside all our pre-conceived notions, put the user at the center of the innovation process and empathize with them to really identify the problem. This format takes most of us out of our comfort zone and makes us uncomfortable, even when you completely understand all the instructions. I have run this workshop several times with students as well as professionals, and I have noticed the same level of discomfort in the first hour of the workshop. Couple the inherent displacement from your comfort zone with a language barrier, and the discomfort get significantly enhanced.
However, after the first half an hour or so, something started to magically change. Students started to learn and understand my body language and started responding to it. The students who spoke English, started chipping in with translations to help each other and I knew that design THINKING was already in practice. You see, the beauty of design thinking is that it’s all about EMPATHY. Once students started learning about each other through empathy interviews, there was a sense of US that was created and the class became a collective effort.
About 30 minutes into the class, I also requested Fernanda, who is an English coach, to join us to help out with the translations. She hustled over with her two boys and the rest of class was then smooth sailing.
Key Observations
We all value deep human connection
Students expressed that they have never really taken the time to get to know their classmates, so being able to take the time to get to know each other itself made a huge impact on them.
Perfection is overrated
We have all being trained to deliver “perfection” from a very young age. Most of us hesitate to show our ideas/products/creations before it is perfect “in our mind.” However, in design thinking, each step is timed and when the timer went off we moved on to the next step. Having timed activities forced students to share their half-baked thoughts and ideas and move on to the next step, which made them very uncomfortable. But the value of constantly inviting user input is that we are sharing half-baked ideas to get feedback and make sure that we are on the right path before investing a few years and a few hundred thousand in our idea. This is the stage of innovation when we should “fail early, fail fast” so that costly downstream mistakes can be avoided.
Stick with it!
There were a few students who left class somewhere in between when things got a bit too chaotic or uncomfortable for them. This was culturally unique to me, as none of my students in the US have ever walked out of my class. Unfortunately, when we give up on something because it makes us uncomfortable, we might lose out on the big “Aha” moment. Once the workshop was over, all the students who had stayed, walked away with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, as they had successfully solved a problem that satisfied their customer, received positive feedback and understood the purpose of the entire exercise.
It is my role as a design thinker to introduce ambiguity, take you out of your comfort zone and challenge your perceptions so that I can help you create new ideas and perspectives. One of the students left a comment on my Linkedin page after class that said “thank you for opening my mind.” That was the most gratifying moment for me.
Settling in
You can read my previous post here.
Week two started with my move into my new condo which will be my home for the next four months. The place is beautiful and extremely convenient. It is located right across the street from the university and is surrounded by local businesses and restaurants in a very vibrant and accessible neighborhood.
Challenges of moving to a new country
Despite all the planning, there is always something that we miss. Although everything worked out for me relatively smoothly, there are a couple things that I wish I had known
1. Brasil has a CPF number which is similar to the social security number in the US. This is required for acquisition of all basic services like internet, cell phone SIM card, renting a place, etc. I was unaware of this before I moved here. I am extremely thankful that my hosts and friends have helped me acquire these services so that I could feel at home.
2. I didn’t bring enough cash with me to convert to Reas to pay rent, which is always a significant amount. Withdrawing money from an ATM to pay can get exorbitantly expensive, as I am limited to withdrawing R$1000 at a time ($~230) and there is a R$25 fee for each transaction. My US bank will not allow international transfers and I am not certain if Brazil banks will accept the transfer. Luckily, my friend introduced me to an app called TransferWise, that effectively works as a middleman to allow us to transfer funds internationally. I used this to pay my rent. It was easy and gave me an excellent exchange rate so I was very happy.
Phrase of the day
Eu nao falo Portuges: I do not speak Portuguese
(there are several accents missing on the Portuguese alphabets here since I cannot get my international keyboard to work)
This was the most used phrase of the week for me. Now that I am on my own, I am going grocery shopping, sight-seeing, going out to eat, and basically living. While I am slowly learning the language, letting people know that I cannot speak Portuguese helped me a lot, because if they could, they would find someone who could speak to me in English.
Profile of the week: Fernanda Regadas
Fernanda and I have been in touch since I was in the US. She was instrumental in coordinating a lot of things with me and effectively helping ensure that I had a smooth transition into Brasil. As you might remember from my previous post, Fernanda is Prof.Geraldo Campos’ wife.
I am amazed at how many hats she wears at the same time. Most days her day starts at 7am and ends at 10pm.
Fernanda has been teaching English for the last 25 years and currently works as an English coach, offering one-on-one coaching sessions. She really enjoys coaching and is an extremely innovative teacher using various technological tools, creative tools and soft skills training to teach her students. I had the pleasure of interacting with some of her students in my first week at their place. One of her students is an 8 year old boy, who became my Portuguese tutor for the day. He was quite meticulous and very strict, giving me a significant amount of homework to complete when he left.
Fernanda also hosts teacher training programs to help others learn and use state-of-the-art tools in education. She is also an international editor consultant and translator. She generously stepped in as a translator in my Design Thinking class, which really helped with the smooth execution of the class.
Fernanda is also pursuing a four-year degree in Naturopathy at UNISUL. She is a full-time mom to two boys ages thirteen and eight and a homemaker.
Despite her intensely busy schedule, she is always upbeat and so full of life. In my week long stay with her, I did not once see her get stressed or upset. She is extremely passionate about her work and family. Her Mantra is “Find work you love and you will never work a day in your life again.”
