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Process change is a transformation that, although it brings positive results and enhances performance, directly affects users.
Humans are often resistant to change. In fact, the unknown can be intimidating for some people. When it involves changes in an important area of life such as work the impact tends to be even greater.
At these times, having the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, to understand their emotions and expectations, is essential.
Given its importance, let’s explore how to practice empathy with users during process changes.
Why is Empathy so important in Process Change?
In general, empathy is a tool that strengthens relationships between people. Of course, this only happens when the feeling is genuine and sincere.
When a company seeks to implement a process change, it must pay special attention and include users throughout the entire execution.
Naturally, the decision to change comes from management, with the goal of achieving certain objectives such as better results, increased productivity, or optimization.
However, these modifications must be clearly explained and understood by users emphasizing, above all, the benefits these transformations will bring to the way work is carried out.
By including users in the implementation process, communication becomes more effective, and their opinions are validated. In addition, participation encourages familiarity with new tools.
Another important aspect is that empathy allows for a deeper understanding of the user. This helps identify requirements or potential challenges that could impact the process change.
Understanding users’ concerns makes it possible to implement adjustments that ensure successful implementation plans.
For example, when implementing a process management solution, both the mapping and creation of a new workflow become more accurate and coherent with user participation.
This makes sense because users are the ones performing these activities daily they can best describe the logic, detailed steps, and points that need improvement, such as where to add decision points, remove irrelevant tasks, or define responsibilities.
Developing Empathy
Having empathy for users during process change eliminates assumptions and encourages collaborative work.
To develop empathy, it’s important to understand that there are three main types:
- Reflective empathy: A response to another person’s emotions and motivations.
- Emotional empathy: Understanding and acting according to others’ feelings.
- Congnitive empathy: The most complex but also the most important this involves the ability to assume and understand another person’s perspective based on their experiences.
Undoubtedly, cognitive empathy is the one that needs to be developed in order to understand how users will react to changes. It also enables more accurate and effective process modeling.
Focusing on Congnitive Empathy
Some simple actions can help strengthen cognitive empathy:
- Be patient: What the user perceives as a problem might not be, from your perspective. Be patient, explain carefully, and stay open to understanding their concerns.
- Engage directly: Observe and interact with the user in their work environment. Take on the mindset of a new colleague it becomes easier to understand how users behave and what their goals are.
- Create scenarios: Observation can sometimes feel intimidating. To understand the user’s daily reality, recreate situations similar to those they face, acting as a newcomer would.
- Consider impacts before implementation: Every process change must meet user needs. Analyze in detail how modifications will affect their daily activities.
- Avoid judgment: Practice active listening and stay genuinely open and interested in what users have to say.
Of course, empathy is a way to get closer to users’ needs. While no one can fully grasp the user’s perspective, taking practical steps to replicate their conditions and experiences helps you better understand their day-to-day reality.
Practical ways to apply empathy
The first step is to get to know your users, their perspectives, and the organizational environment they operate in.
By understanding users, you can uncover issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. Different viewpoints often lead to new ideas for improving and optimizing processes.
When it comes to interaction, interviews can be very useful but the questions must be clear and objective.
Prepare the questionnaire in advance to capture essential information directly, and keep questions open-ended to allow for deeper responses.
Another empathetic practice is mirroring that is, repeating what the user said in your own words to confirm your understanding. Mirroring helps strengthen connection, improve communication clarity, and reduce resistance to change.
If you can’t observe users directly during the process change, ask them to describe their experience in detail. Nowadays, you can also request videos or photos of their workflow.
Using analogies or examples from other departments or teams also builds empathy. When users learn that others have faced similar changes, positive comparisons can foster encouragement and confidence.
Implementing new technologies during process change
Process change, in particular, requires a partner who is ready to communicate and truly understand users.
With the help of experienced consultants, cognitive empathy can be deepened especially through training sessions that explain new tools in a clear and straightforward way.
It’s up to the company to choose the solution that best meets its needs without forgetting to consider how easily users can adapt to the new system.
At Neomind, we are constantly improving and updating the Fusion Platform to better meet users’ needs in a personalized way.
The Fusion Platform is fully intuitive a low-code tool that allows each user to adapt it according to their own requirements.
