Empathy is the engine that powers creativity, innovation

In 2005, LEGO, the Danish toy maker, took the technology community by surprise when they cheered the hacking of its 3D modelling platform called LEGO Factory.

Executives initially fancied the idea of legal action as an archetypal corporate reaction especially since the company still struggled to recuperate from near bankruptcy. Yet, upon a closer look, it turned out that the hackers were part of a well-coordinated colony of dexterous LEGO aficionados.

Discovering inefficiencies in the system brought out through the intrusion, the hackers sought to create a database that would optimise the number of exact bricks a consumer needed.

The action would minimise the amount customers would spend, contrary to the original version of the software developed by LEGO whereby one had to purchase a whole bag with far more bricks than one required.

Fleshing out the problem, LEGO put itself into the shoes of its ardent consumers. Instead of filing a law suit as originally intended, it switched gears and engaged the hackers.

Tormod Askildsen, LEGO’s Head of Community Development at the time was quoted saying “our lawyers were ready to go after these consumers and say, “you cannot do that.”

But we also realised that there was a lot of talent and a lot of very great skills out there in the community. Yes, they are tinkering with our product, but they are improving it.

What happened at LEGO was a classical performance of cognitive empathy in a corporate environment.

The 18th century British philosopher David Hume once remarked that “the minds of men are mirrors to one another”. In the early 1990’s, Italian researchers at Parma University made a riveting discovery.

Through a series of experiments done on monkeys, they figured out that certain sets of neurons within the premotor cortex fired both when the monkey grabbed an object and also when it observed another primate grab the same object.

These neurons were also recently found in human beings. They came to be known as mirror neurons. As such, they form the basis for understanding other individuals’ actions. The particular neurons facilitate empathy in that one experiences understanding of another person’s mental and emotional condition from their perspective.

Thus human beings are naturally wired to empathise. Question is, why then should empathy take centre stage in an organisation’s efforts to turbocharge its performance?

Creativity and innovation have become the lifeblood of first-rate organisations like LEGO. Empathy serves as the engine of creativity and innovation. The Centre for Creative Leadership analysed data from 6,731 managers across 38 countries and found that empathy positively related to job performance. How does empathy specifically also promote creativity and innovation? Researchers categorised empathy into cognitive and emotional empathy. Emotional empathy involves vicarious experiencing of another’s emotional state.

Meanwhile, cognitive empathy entails the ability to accurately imagine another person’s feelings or thinking and even predict their subsequent behaviours. In the Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin describes Lincoln as a leader who possessed incredible levels of empathy.

It is quite evident that Abraham Lincoln’s empathic capacity gave him a competitive edge when appraising situations and people. It was a source of insights that culminated into fireballs of political and military strategy, hence his competence.

In the corporate world, cognitive empathy aids both organisational and individual competence through integration of knowledge. Emotional empathy, on the other hand, provides fertile ground for trust to flourish amongst employees.

Communication between individuals who understand each other at a visceral level is spontaneous in character.

Consequently, individuals share ideas without fear of being judged or ridiculed thus encouraging creativity in solving problems.