A Break for SAP Users
I'm catching up on clippings from last year that show the progress of whole brain thinking in the business world--how Leading With A Whole New Mind is playing out.
A Wall Street Journal article from June 2006 reports that SAP, the German software behemoth, has a formed a Design Services Team. An SAP engineer is quoted as saying that the design of some of the company's offerings was "inhumane." This is probably a first for a large company to publicly admit to making things harder for their customers. Okay, call me cynical. And hooray that someone recognizes the wisdom in calling it like it is.
One of the main goals for the Design Services Team is to help SAP engineers develop empathy. How? According to the WSJ, "By teaching engineers to go out and talk to customers and to watch them as they go about their work."
A couple of observations:
- Yes, empathy can be developed. Even for engineers. I'm a prime example of that.
- It's very easy to assume that you know the customer well enough to give them what they need. I do it all the time as a small business owner (ouch!) and clearly remember making lots of assumptions as a engineer in developing requirements for new telephone features. I'm not sure why this step of connecting with the customer BEFORE a product is developed, but it is.
I've digressed, but hopefully in a good way. My main point is that Dan Pink's Six Senses, which includes Empathy, are being applied in the business world. SAP found this aspect to be part of "staying ahead of the others."
For another take on the WSJ story, see a tongue-in-cheek blog posting from the Oracle Technology Network.
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