Why is it that a software development school is preaching empathy before the first day of school? I don't believe that you have to look further than the first article provided where a designer doing field research is interviewing a visually-impaired woman and realizing that the program being designed will have a profound impact on her life. What greater satisfaction can be extracted from hard work? As our days move closer and closer to the Age of the Machine, it is important to step back and think about how these machines that we are designing are impacting the lives of humans in need.
What does empathy mean to me? For me, I believe it means to listen. There are things that I will never fully understand. When I am faced with an issue that is impossible for me to understand, it becomes my job to listen and find out what it is that I can do to make the situation, at least, tenable. Hopefully, I can do even better than that! I have led large groups in the past and I have had to ask people to do difficult things in the name of accomplishing a mission. When I believe that I am asking to much, I have a meeting with my people and we talk about what we can do to make the situation better. I realized that while I was the decision maker, most of the best ideas came from within our group. When I implemented their ideas, not only was there a boost in efficiency, but also a boost in morale, as they were encouraged and felt heard.
Why is empathy important on a team? I believe that I touched upon this in the previous answer, but when we have a better understanding of what we need and what we are trying to achieve, we will have more pointed success. People will work harder when they feel that they are a vital part of something and feel valued. Ignoring, ostracizing, or downplaying their capabilities will diminish their desire for output and the team will greatly suffer. Before each project a team should be aware of what they are capable of contributing and the team should set goals that meet those expectations. You will hit more of your goals and the team will feel as though the are continuously getting better.
When did a teammate use empathy with me? I had to go to a lot of meetings that should have been emails. They were mostly ceremonial and I often did not contribute much to them, but they were long. We also had some technical work that needed to get done 24/7/365. We had a string of sickness come over the team and I needed to be in two places at once. One of my coworkers who was not capable of doing the technical aspect of the job, and voiced that, volunteered to go to the meetings instead. She was able to take notes (and even networked!) and allowed me to handle the technical aspect of the job. A day that was looking bleak from the start turned fruitful very quickly due to her empathy.
When do I find empathy to be difficult? When people do not pull their weight. Usually, this is a sign of a toxic workplace, but it has happened in my workplaces. We would have a schedule tracker that everyone could see and there was a person who was applying for days off all over the place. Her reasoning was quite dubious as well- An oil change. An airport pickup. A send off for a friend at a restaurant. These added up and finally I had to talk about it with her. She was very good at the job when she was there, but I wasn't able to count on her anymore and this lack of dependability began leaking to the rest of the team. No one wanted to work with her, not because she wasn't capable, but because you couldn't depend on her. After some conversations explaining to her how I and the rest of the team felt about her notable absences, I believe she got it- Nevertheless, it was hard to feel empathetic and more often felt like we were being taken advantage of.