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Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
In this essential and illuminating book, top business strategist Dev Patnaik tells the story of how organizations of all kinds prosper when they tap into a power each of us already empathy, the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people. When people inside a company develop a shared sense of what’s going on in the world, they see new opportunities faster than their competitors. They have the courage to take a risk on something new. And they have the gut-level certitude to stick with an idea that doesn’t take off right away. People are "Wired to Care," and many of the world’s best organizations are, too.
In pursuit of this idea, Patnaik takes readers inside big companies like IBM, Target, and Intel to see widespread empathy in action. But he also goes to farmers' markets and a conference on world religions. He dives deep into the catacombs of the human brain to find the biological sources of empathy. And he spends time on both sides of the political aisle, with James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, and John McCain, a national hero, to show how empathy can give you the acuity to cut through a morass of contradictory information.
Wired to Care is a compelling tale of the power that people have to see the world through each other’s eyes, told with passion for the possibilities that lie ahead if leaders learn to stop worrying about their own problems and start caring about the world around them. As Patnaik notes, in addition to its considerable economic benefits, increasing empathy for the people you serve can have a personal impact, as It just might help you to have a better day at work.
In pursuit of this idea, Patnaik takes readers inside big companies like IBM, Target, and Intel to see widespread empathy in action. But he also goes to farmers' markets and a conference on world religions. He dives deep into the catacombs of the human brain to find the biological sources of empathy. And he spends time on both sides of the political aisle, with James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, and John McCain, a national hero, to show how empathy can give you the acuity to cut through a morass of contradictory information.
Wired to Care is a compelling tale of the power that people have to see the world through each other’s eyes, told with passion for the possibilities that lie ahead if leaders learn to stop worrying about their own problems and start caring about the world around them. As Patnaik notes, in addition to its considerable economic benefits, increasing empathy for the people you serve can have a personal impact, as It just might help you to have a better day at work.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 23, 2008
72 people are currently reading
1232 people want to read
About the author
Dev Patnaik
4 books4 followersDev Patnaik is a founder and principal of Jump Associates, a consulting firm that helps companies innovate. Together with his teammates, he works with visionary business leaders to identify new markets, reinvent existing categories, and define new products and services. Dev is a trusted advisor to senior executives at some of America’s most admired companies, including General Electric, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Target and Hewlett-Packard.
When he’s not working at Jump, Dev moonlights down the road at Stanford University as an adjunct professor, where he teaches design-research methods to undergraduate and graduate students. Since 1999, he has taught a course called Needfinding. In the class, students draw upon methods from anthropology, design and business planning to discover insights about ordinary people and create new products. While the class is required for all Design majors, it’s become a favorite of students from the Business School, School of Education and even Computer Science. As apples don’t fall far from the tree, Dev has a Bachelor’s degree in Product Design from Stanford.
Prior to founding Jump, Dev was the Director of Design at Forbes Marshall, a manufacturer of industrial process controls based in India. Dev led the development of Forbes Marshall’s internal design capabilities, creating programs in product design, exhibit design and corporate identity. Dev also led the company’s product strategy initiative, which eventually led him to work in the crossover space between design and business planning. After a stint with a strategy firm in Chicago, Dev returned to California to help found Jump in 1997. A frequent speaker at marketing, design and innovation forums, Dev was recently featured as a guest on “The Business of Innovation,” a series on CNBC. His articles on innovation and strategy have appeared in several publications including BusinessWeek, Brandweek and the Design Management Review.
© 2009 BrightSight Group, LLC., All Rights Reserved
268 Wall Street Princeton, NJ 08540
http://www.brightsightgroup.com
609-924-3060
When he’s not working at Jump, Dev moonlights down the road at Stanford University as an adjunct professor, where he teaches design-research methods to undergraduate and graduate students. Since 1999, he has taught a course called Needfinding. In the class, students draw upon methods from anthropology, design and business planning to discover insights about ordinary people and create new products. While the class is required for all Design majors, it’s become a favorite of students from the Business School, School of Education and even Computer Science. As apples don’t fall far from the tree, Dev has a Bachelor’s degree in Product Design from Stanford.
Prior to founding Jump, Dev was the Director of Design at Forbes Marshall, a manufacturer of industrial process controls based in India. Dev led the development of Forbes Marshall’s internal design capabilities, creating programs in product design, exhibit design and corporate identity. Dev also led the company’s product strategy initiative, which eventually led him to work in the crossover space between design and business planning. After a stint with a strategy firm in Chicago, Dev returned to California to help found Jump in 1997. A frequent speaker at marketing, design and innovation forums, Dev was recently featured as a guest on “The Business of Innovation,” a series on CNBC. His articles on innovation and strategy have appeared in several publications including BusinessWeek, Brandweek and the Design Management Review.
© 2009 BrightSight Group, LLC., All Rights Reserved
268 Wall Street Princeton, NJ 08540
http://www.brightsightgroup.com
609-924-3060
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
April 5, 2009
"Wired to Care" is one of the best business books I have read to date. Dev Patnaik explains why humans are hard-wired, as it were, to have empathy (including an explanation of the neurobiology of the limbic system) and then explains how it applies to business.
From stories about a young woman disguising herself as an older person (including prosthesis that impeded her movement) to better understand design issues for kitchen tools and public facilities as they impact the elderly, Patniak's deliberate two weeks in a wheelchair to look at issues from the perspective of a disabled person, and more, the book explains clearly why companies that understand their customers' perspective and thus empathize with them tend to have greater success even during economic downturns.
In my experience, all business people at some time or other fall into the trap of looking at bottom lines and policies instead of the people impacted by the work of their company. Reading this book is a great start toward reversing that trend. In an experience-based economy such as that we now inhabit, empathy and other seemingly unrelated skills are vital to business success.
(Review based on Advance Reader Copy.)
From stories about a young woman disguising herself as an older person (including prosthesis that impeded her movement) to better understand design issues for kitchen tools and public facilities as they impact the elderly, Patniak's deliberate two weeks in a wheelchair to look at issues from the perspective of a disabled person, and more, the book explains clearly why companies that understand their customers' perspective and thus empathize with them tend to have greater success even during economic downturns.
In my experience, all business people at some time or other fall into the trap of looking at bottom lines and policies instead of the people impacted by the work of their company. Reading this book is a great start toward reversing that trend. In an experience-based economy such as that we now inhabit, empathy and other seemingly unrelated skills are vital to business success.
(Review based on Advance Reader Copy.)
June 6, 2013
I decided to read this book to document myself for a workshop on innovation. It was recommended in the website of Stanford's D.school. As a philosopher I thought It would be interesting to explore the interplay between ethically loaded concepts such as "empathy" and "caring" and the world of innovation and business. If you plan to read this book I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that you are not going to find practical tips. The book is more a kind of extended argument to foster empathy throughout the organitzation and the multiple side-benefits it has.
The good news is that the book is a collection of good business success stories. Most of them are inspirational although sometimes repetitive.
It is a well-written book, and that's the reason I've given it 4 stars.
And It has also taught me a new word "Needfinding". Cool.
The bad news is that you are not going to find practical tips. The book is more a kind of extended argument to foster empathy throughout the organitzation and the multiple side-benefits it has.
The good news is that the book is a collection of good business success stories. Most of them are inspirational although sometimes repetitive.
It is a well-written book, and that's the reason I've given it 4 stars.
And It has also taught me a new word "Needfinding". Cool.
June 16, 2021
A good book that points out human-centered focus is important for a thriving business, not the bottom line. It gets pretty repetitive and pontificating at times. Could have been better as a series of case studies and an article, not a whole book.
I gave it four stars because of the message of the content and how important it is to have that in your core values. Empathy helps us holistically serve customers and employees.
I gave it four stars because of the message of the content and how important it is to have that in your core values. Empathy helps us holistically serve customers and employees.
March 23, 2012
I generally don't like business books and this is similar in style: lots of anecdotes and repetitive points with a very weak structure. It's hard to tell where it's going - it's just a series of stories. Sometimes it returns to extend previous stories, which seems like going backwards.
A more useful format might have been to embrace the anecdotes and structure the book around case studies rather than try to point to slightly different parts of a company's story at different times.
It earns a 3 stars because it had a few pragmatic, actionable ideas for project processes that were relevant to an internal initiative. They were helpful seeds to think of additional ideas we could incorporate into our practice.
A more useful format might have been to embrace the anecdotes and structure the book around case studies rather than try to point to slightly different parts of a company's story at different times.
It earns a 3 stars because it had a few pragmatic, actionable ideas for project processes that were relevant to an internal initiative. They were helpful seeds to think of additional ideas we could incorporate into our practice.
January 3, 2013
I was really excited to read this, as a researcher and designer, empathy is key. That said, this book is relatively light; most of the examples I was familiar with, and it felt rudimentary. It's probably a good book for people looking to understand the process of good design, but a design practitioner might not get a lot out of this.
March 16, 2015
The key message in this book:
Putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes not only lets you know how they view themselves and what their needs are, it also opens up a whole new approach for creating, producing and marketing your products more effectively and successfully.
Putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes not only lets you know how they view themselves and what their needs are, it also opens up a whole new approach for creating, producing and marketing your products more effectively and successfully.
February 14, 2009
I have it on good authority that this is the book of the year.
Read
February 25, 2013This book aligns well with step one, "Empathy", of Stanford's Design Thinking. I recommend for those who are looking for basic understanding of Design Thinking and real-life examples / application.
October 27, 2015
A very pleasant surprise. Worth reading.
Stands out among the tiresome or possibly hectoring business books that abound. I actually remember most of what I read!
Stands out among the tiresome or possibly hectoring business books that abound. I actually remember most of what I read!
January 5, 2019
After reading this book I have a much expanded idea of how large companies can be impacted by empathy for their customer base. There were even shades of that self-help book inspirational feeling in the description of Clorox execs crying upon seeing how their "low interest category" cleaning products could turn moms into heroes, and thus make working at Clorox meaningful. For this I'm glad to have read it and think the authors pulled together something important.
Some aspects are directly applicable, for example finding ways to have the experience of your customers very close at hand to company HQ (Target put a store alongside HQ, Smith&Hawken has a garden at HQ).
Other concepts are a little harder to see how to apply. In particular, the progression from "hiring your customer" to "open empathy organization" is a big jump. As an aspiration led from the top, becoming such an organization seems a great mission, or rather a powerful approach to long-term success (with chances improved doubtless by assistance from the author's consulting company). Fashioning a robust program to achieve widespread empathy must be more about organizational development than hiring the talent to run a product effort with good design practices.
More specifically, for practitioners, there are tricky methodology questions raised (which this book does not claim to answer) .
For example, with OXO the design philosophy became "universal design", and of course if there's a mousetrap that's better for literally call customers, that's great. (And I love their products). But on the surface this principal conflicts with "know who you are serving" and "don't try to be everything to everybody". How to tease out which principal applies when ?
IBM's Gerstner made a point of asking "what are we hearing from customers" but how to balance the weight of this feedback against real data collected ? Isn't testing pervasiveness critical to validation of whatever may be discovered through empathic connections ?
The book isn't designed to go into such methodology details, but I can happily say that these questions are stimulating new thinking for me.
Some aspects are directly applicable, for example finding ways to have the experience of your customers very close at hand to company HQ (Target put a store alongside HQ, Smith&Hawken has a garden at HQ).
Other concepts are a little harder to see how to apply. In particular, the progression from "hiring your customer" to "open empathy organization" is a big jump. As an aspiration led from the top, becoming such an organization seems a great mission, or rather a powerful approach to long-term success (with chances improved doubtless by assistance from the author's consulting company). Fashioning a robust program to achieve widespread empathy must be more about organizational development than hiring the talent to run a product effort with good design practices.
More specifically, for practitioners, there are tricky methodology questions raised (which this book does not claim to answer) .
For example, with OXO the design philosophy became "universal design", and of course if there's a mousetrap that's better for literally call customers, that's great. (And I love their products). But on the surface this principal conflicts with "know who you are serving" and "don't try to be everything to everybody". How to tease out which principal applies when ?
IBM's Gerstner made a point of asking "what are we hearing from customers" but how to balance the weight of this feedback against real data collected ? Isn't testing pervasiveness critical to validation of whatever may be discovered through empathic connections ?
The book isn't designed to go into such methodology details, but I can happily say that these questions are stimulating new thinking for me.
Read
December 16, 2021I enjoyed reading the book but somewhere in the middle I got bored a little. There were some parts of the book redundant, and it maybe said in less words and get delivered and understood. On the contrary, the storytelling tool that the author used was nice and get me hooked to know the story of Microsoft, target, etc.
My favorite story in the book was Pixar story before producing Ratatouille movie. The movie was based on true emotions and interactions. The producer of the movie got trained in a real kitchen under the supervision of Thomas Keller, the chef of the French Laundry. This gave the staff of the movie a real taste of kitchen atmosphere, the interaction between the kitchen staff, and how the dishes got displayed and constructed. Everything in that movie was authentic, and that's why the audience ranging from ordinary people to chefs got touched by that movie.
My favorite story in the book was Pixar story before producing Ratatouille movie. The movie was based on true emotions and interactions. The producer of the movie got trained in a real kitchen under the supervision of Thomas Keller, the chef of the French Laundry. This gave the staff of the movie a real taste of kitchen atmosphere, the interaction between the kitchen staff, and how the dishes got displayed and constructed. Everything in that movie was authentic, and that's why the audience ranging from ordinary people to chefs got touched by that movie.
May 17, 2018
Overall I really enjoyed the book and would have rated it with 4 stars since I loved the topic.
I loved the questions that were asked in the end of every chapter. However, it was the most actionable thing of the whole book. There were many experiences and I enjoyed that as well. Rapid prototyping case, coffee case, Animal Kingdom, Zildjian family.
I loved the idea of going with gut feeling and human to human approach in business. Did not learn anything new about mirror neurons.
However, I honestly wanted to learn more mechanisms of how to trigger empathy in myself and others and I wanted something more actionable.
Anyway, thanks, my brains started to already think on how to implement elements in my life.
I loved the questions that were asked in the end of every chapter. However, it was the most actionable thing of the whole book. There were many experiences and I enjoyed that as well. Rapid prototyping case, coffee case, Animal Kingdom, Zildjian family.
I loved the idea of going with gut feeling and human to human approach in business. Did not learn anything new about mirror neurons.
However, I honestly wanted to learn more mechanisms of how to trigger empathy in myself and others and I wanted something more actionable.
Anyway, thanks, my brains started to already think on how to implement elements in my life.
January 2, 2018
An important book, as it points to the heart behind good innovation and organizational design. It lags a little in the "teeth" department as the corporate examples are a little shoddy (e.g. - Harley Davidson is empathetic because it spends lots of time with motorcycle riders).
Perhaps the beef is not so much with the content itself (important ideas here on how companies can become customer-centric), but in the use of the word empathy. Much of what Patnaik describes is not empathy but rather simple understanding. He tries to make the case that our mirror neurons fire and feel what others feel automatically simply by being in the presence of those different than us. This is a gross simplification of what empathy is or what it costs the empathizer, and in my opinion weakens a word that needs its full power.
Perhaps the beef is not so much with the content itself (important ideas here on how companies can become customer-centric), but in the use of the word empathy. Much of what Patnaik describes is not empathy but rather simple understanding. He tries to make the case that our mirror neurons fire and feel what others feel automatically simply by being in the presence of those different than us. This is a gross simplification of what empathy is or what it costs the empathizer, and in my opinion weakens a word that needs its full power.
April 7, 2019
The book talks about the power and importance of empathy and the necessity of understanding your market, but the author fails to empathize with the audience. The book just lists a bunch of real world examples interpreted only through the lens of empathy, and is not particular good in categorizing the examples.
December 5, 2020
Having empathy: Harley-Davidson
the Golden Rule of life: Do unto others as you would have done to you: Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and its signature game Halo, Xbox 360, Apple's iPod: the Zune
Open Empathy Organizations: Disney's animal kingdom
the Golden Rule of life: Do unto others as you would have done to you: Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and its signature game Halo, Xbox 360, Apple's iPod: the Zune
Open Empathy Organizations: Disney's animal kingdom
June 14, 2017
I kept thinking about the church, and how his principles here can be applied to evangelism. Yes, really. Business books are surprisingly applicable to non-business human interaction.
March 22, 2018
Good Read.
September 15, 2019
Case studies that are new and easy to share. Packs a lot of material in a short book.
October 24, 2019
Quick read with a lot of examples
October 25, 2020
A wonderfully thoughtful and provocative view of how companies can better harness the power of empathy. I'll be coming back to this one again and again.
February 11, 2015
Basic concepts on how to run an ethical company.
1. Companies prosper when they tap into a power that every one of us already has -- the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people.
2. Empathy is an antidote to a world of abstraction. Faced with a deluge of information, people like to boil things down. This puts them in danger of making poor decisions based on incomplete or distorted information.
3. Empathy isn’t a new phenomenon. There was a time not so long ago, when there was a broad and deep connection between producers and consumers that allowed everyone to prosper.
4. The quickest way to have empathy for someone else is to be just like them. For companies, the answer is to hire their customers.
5. It’s often not possible or not enough to hire your customers. To continue to grow and prosper, you have to step outside of yourself and walk in someone else’s shoes.
6. Bringing people face to face triggers a caring response. The emotionally charged memories of that experience can be a guiding light to stay true to the vision.
7. While having empathy for other people is a good thing for us to do as individuals, it’s far more powerful when you can create widespread empathy throughout a large organization.
8. When you step outside of yourself, you open up to the possibility of seeing new opportunities for growth.
9. When companies create an empathic connection to the rest of the world, a funny thing starts to happen. The line between outside and in, between producer and consumer, begins to blur.
10. Consistent ethical behavior demands that you walk in other people’s shoes. Because of this, Widespread Empathy can be an effective way to ensure the morality of a large institution, more so than any rulebook or code of conduct.
11. Having empathy for others can do more than drive growth. It can also give people the one thing that too many of us lack: a reason to come in to work every day.
Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People
If you want people to be interested in you, you should be genuinely interested in other people.
The limbic system draws together many elements of the brain to form an overall structure for handling emotional information. Among these are two regions that have particular implications for understanding how we learn to care about other people: the amygdala (processing our emotions and those of other people) and the hippocampus (processing long-term memories).
All business is personal. People, not machines, have their hands on the wheels of the engine of capitalism. And people, not machines, actually buy and use products and services.
Asking someone to work late on his anniversary is a tad insensitive. Telling people who you just laid off to dig through the trash is inhuman. Only by becoming part of a large organization (like Northwest Airlines) that is disconnected from others is it possible to do something so unfeeling.
Clorox sponsored a weeklong series of James Bond movies on TNN called: Bleached Blonde Bimbos Week -- Sponsored by Clorox!
It’s obnoxious for any company to cater to male chauvinism, but particularly unwise to insult the people who buy your products, and pay your salary and fund your 401(k) plan. Intuitively, anyone at Clorox could understand this. Getting the company to focus on caring not only constituted a growth opportunity for the company; it also had the potential to make a lot of lives better.
1. Companies prosper when they tap into a power that every one of us already has -- the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people.
2. Empathy is an antidote to a world of abstraction. Faced with a deluge of information, people like to boil things down. This puts them in danger of making poor decisions based on incomplete or distorted information.
3. Empathy isn’t a new phenomenon. There was a time not so long ago, when there was a broad and deep connection between producers and consumers that allowed everyone to prosper.
4. The quickest way to have empathy for someone else is to be just like them. For companies, the answer is to hire their customers.
5. It’s often not possible or not enough to hire your customers. To continue to grow and prosper, you have to step outside of yourself and walk in someone else’s shoes.
6. Bringing people face to face triggers a caring response. The emotionally charged memories of that experience can be a guiding light to stay true to the vision.
7. While having empathy for other people is a good thing for us to do as individuals, it’s far more powerful when you can create widespread empathy throughout a large organization.
8. When you step outside of yourself, you open up to the possibility of seeing new opportunities for growth.
9. When companies create an empathic connection to the rest of the world, a funny thing starts to happen. The line between outside and in, between producer and consumer, begins to blur.
10. Consistent ethical behavior demands that you walk in other people’s shoes. Because of this, Widespread Empathy can be an effective way to ensure the morality of a large institution, more so than any rulebook or code of conduct.
11. Having empathy for others can do more than drive growth. It can also give people the one thing that too many of us lack: a reason to come in to work every day.
Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People
If you want people to be interested in you, you should be genuinely interested in other people.
The limbic system draws together many elements of the brain to form an overall structure for handling emotional information. Among these are two regions that have particular implications for understanding how we learn to care about other people: the amygdala (processing our emotions and those of other people) and the hippocampus (processing long-term memories).
All business is personal. People, not machines, have their hands on the wheels of the engine of capitalism. And people, not machines, actually buy and use products and services.
Asking someone to work late on his anniversary is a tad insensitive. Telling people who you just laid off to dig through the trash is inhuman. Only by becoming part of a large organization (like Northwest Airlines) that is disconnected from others is it possible to do something so unfeeling.
Clorox sponsored a weeklong series of James Bond movies on TNN called: Bleached Blonde Bimbos Week -- Sponsored by Clorox!
It’s obnoxious for any company to cater to male chauvinism, but particularly unwise to insult the people who buy your products, and pay your salary and fund your 401(k) plan. Intuitively, anyone at Clorox could understand this. Getting the company to focus on caring not only constituted a growth opportunity for the company; it also had the potential to make a lot of lives better.
August 3, 2009
Informative report on why empathetic companies do well
Executives often know little about the people who buy their companies’ products and services. This is not surprising. To study people, you must care about them. However, most companies eliminate empathy from their operations. In essence, they proceed as if they have calculating, survival-bent reptile brains. Profits drive everything. This is an odd disconnect because corporate livelihoods depend on people – not lizards – and people’s brains are hardwired to be empathetic. Dev Patnaik (writing with Peter Mortensen) shows why firms that connect empathetically with their customers do better financially. He insists today’s cold-hearted, bottom-line business world has room for caring companies, and he points to IBM, Nike and Harley-Davidson as examples. The fact that empathy is also a strong business strategy is icing on the cake. getAbstract suggests this fine book to CEOs, marketing officers and other executives who want to build their business by acting on their respect for their customers. As Patnaik explains on his blog, “Empathy isn’t about having a visionary leader. It’s about making customer information an easy, everyday and experiential part of working at your company.”
Executives often know little about the people who buy their companies’ products and services. This is not surprising. To study people, you must care about them. However, most companies eliminate empathy from their operations. In essence, they proceed as if they have calculating, survival-bent reptile brains. Profits drive everything. This is an odd disconnect because corporate livelihoods depend on people – not lizards – and people’s brains are hardwired to be empathetic. Dev Patnaik (writing with Peter Mortensen) shows why firms that connect empathetically with their customers do better financially. He insists today’s cold-hearted, bottom-line business world has room for caring companies, and he points to IBM, Nike and Harley-Davidson as examples. The fact that empathy is also a strong business strategy is icing on the cake. getAbstract suggests this fine book to CEOs, marketing officers and other executives who want to build their business by acting on their respect for their customers. As Patnaik explains on his blog, “Empathy isn’t about having a visionary leader. It’s about making customer information an easy, everyday and experiential part of working at your company.”
February 27, 2009
Wired to Care has some fantastic and compelling examples about the power of empathy for design and business. The examples alone are worth the price of the book. And because it's full of stories it's a very easy read - even for a business book.
For all the great stories I wish there was more how-to in the book. I'm left with the feeling that, yes, empathy is clearly a huge thing - what are some more ways I can start putting it into action in my business. I needed more of the 'Putting empathy to work across your organization'. Guess I should get thinking.
Most interesting were some of the neat non-obvious benefits of empathy such as making ethics easier, and providing a reason to come to work every day. And it also surprised me with the neat biological bases of empathy including the analogy of companies operating with reptilian brains - no limbic system to guide us in emotionally informed decisions - in most business we check-in our emotions at the door. And that's a terrible thing to waste.
For all the great stories I wish there was more how-to in the book. I'm left with the feeling that, yes, empathy is clearly a huge thing - what are some more ways I can start putting it into action in my business. I needed more of the 'Putting empathy to work across your organization'. Guess I should get thinking.
Most interesting were some of the neat non-obvious benefits of empathy such as making ethics easier, and providing a reason to come to work every day. And it also surprised me with the neat biological bases of empathy including the analogy of companies operating with reptilian brains - no limbic system to guide us in emotionally informed decisions - in most business we check-in our emotions at the door. And that's a terrible thing to waste.
May 29, 2011
Wired to care provides a refreshing lens through which to view businesses and the various markets that they serve. Whether you and your business produce a product or provide a service, this is an instructive read. It’s full of relevant examples (e.g., Target, Nike, Xbox, and many others) showing that when businesses and people care about others, they thrive. What’s more, the principles in this book are easy to comprehend, easy to implement, and relevant to business as well as simply doing life.
January 17, 2014
A good read on how wide-spread empathy could impact organization performance and what could be done to build it. Book is illustrated with company cases and personal stories to support author's statements.
I got out of the book three main points:
1. We all have empathy as individuals.
2. The level at which we engage it depends on a conscious effort to experience the life of others as well as readiness to act on our findings.
3. Companies will make better decisions if they enlist every employee's empathy in the work environment.
I got out of the book three main points:
1. We all have empathy as individuals.
2. The level at which we engage it depends on a conscious effort to experience the life of others as well as readiness to act on our findings.
3. Companies will make better decisions if they enlist every employee's empathy in the work environment.
January 4, 2016
Cool basic concept. A collection of examples and then too much of the same. I guess the book could be half as long and still deliver. I got to this author and book through a Stanford class where we had to read one of its chapters (the one of the story of Mercedes bens' designers) and so I thought: wow I have to read the hole book now! Obviously for me that is one of the best chapters of the book. Nevertheless, it's not a bad book, as I said: cool basic concept. If you combine this with some others like Start With Why form Simon Sinek, you'll get really strategically sophisticated.
August 4, 2014
Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro Generar empatía, de Dev Patnaik y Peter Mortensen.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: marketing y ventas, atraer y retener a los clientes.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro Generar empatía, Por qué ponerse en la piel de los demás es la clave para atraer y retener a los clientes: Generar empatía
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: marketing y ventas, atraer y retener a los clientes.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro Generar empatía, Por qué ponerse en la piel de los demás es la clave para atraer y retener a los clientes: Generar empatía
May 29, 2012
The book is really persuasive in terms of how empathy is natural to every one and how it can create successful and sustainable business. However, there are not so many skills and techniques discussed. It's seems that empathy is so intrinsic and natural that we don't need to practice and can execute if we are willing to do so. But I really doubt whether our cognitive bias permit us to empathize well.
December 22, 2013
This book is a valuable contribution to the movement towards making designers, leaders, businesses and individuals more empathetic. I support what the author is advocating for. However the prose itself had a very predictable flavour to it, like a joke whose punchline you can see coming a mile away. It felt over-outlined. So, a valuable stepping stone towards an important end, but not an enjoyable reading experience unto itself.
August 31, 2015
Dev Patnaik has very deeply explains for why people are wired to care. The mirror neurons articled so well, as the reflex action work as per these neurons only.
This not only the book that one must read but its an experience that you will get without actually act on the topics that are discussed and explained here.
I really enjoyed it well. And its a very good companion for any of the entrepreneur who will going to shake the world with his innovative ideas but full of empathy.
This not only the book that one must read but its an experience that you will get without actually act on the topics that are discussed and explained here.
I really enjoyed it well. And its a very good companion for any of the entrepreneur who will going to shake the world with his innovative ideas but full of empathy.
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