Design Thinking: Explaining Empathy (In a 4 Min. Summary)

(Cleveland Clinic - Every life deserves world class care.)

Just yesterday I was sort of asked last minute to help introduce Design Thinking to a small team at work. As I was rushing through trying to get some core points down that I could communicate in 30min-to-1Hr cram-session, I came across a YouTube video I used again and again to help explain "Empathy". 

If you have less than 5 mins (it's 4:24 long) to explain to someone what Empathy is and why it's so core & fundamental to Design Thinking, I encourage you to consider this video. 

Even if I had only 30 mins to talk about Empathy  I'd put aside 5 mins to show this video. That's how powerful I think it is.

Cleveland Clinic - Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care 

(I originally got this video from Tim Brown of IDEO and also author of Change By Design in his blog post here.)

For me personally, I've been in more hospitals lately that I generally wanted to. After seeing this earlier, I certainly did not look at hospitals the same again.

If the Cleveland Clinic approaches their medical work like they do their videos, I believe they will change the world. They are already one of the US' top 4 hospitals. It's no wonder they have a great slogan:

"Every Life deserves world class care."

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

p.s. You might want to dim the lights, there may be moist eyes. This video so falls in line with David Kelley's TED Talk I mentioned in last post about the MRI machine and making it more kid-friendly.