The Heart of the Deal
Psychopaths need not apply.
With the shifting political landscape and the normalisation of more callous behaviour, I found myself caught in a loop recently, thinking about how experience design may have to evolve to empathise with audiences that themselves lack empathy. đ¤¨đŹ
As a customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) strategist, the core objective is usually to cultivate positive emotional responses by removing points of friction and creating moments of surprise & delight.
I suppose in essence that wonât change, but the things that trigger delight may differ wildly from the usual range of positive emotions. Thatâs what weâve seen develop over an extended period of time now, with negative content on social media platforms proving to be the most addictive, and therefore commercially effective.
I refuse to embrace negativity as a strategy or a tactical position. OK, Iâm being negative ABOUT negativity here, but bear with me.
I see a massive empathy deficit growing in certain aspects of society generally, but in business it tends to manifest in a few different ways:
Wannabe Psychopaths. In some cases itâs a deliberate shift to adopt the psychopathic traits of those whoâve been financially successful before; those who insist a callous approach is key to that success. These people are easy to spot. If theyâre not explicitly singing the praises of irrefutably bad people, theyâre doing a poor impersonation of them. I can avoid working with people like this without too much difficulty.
Genuine Psychopaths. In other cases, itâs a genuine ruthlessness. Not simply a case of mimicking one of the great tyrants of business past, but actually being a true original. True psychopaths are harder to spot. They possess the ability to convey charm in a way that might stimulate positive feelings, before turning on a dime. Working with people like this can be truly damaging to oneâs mental and financial health, which can translate into poor physical health. Over the past year, Iâve learnt new skills to help me spot people like this, but occasionally I still find myself swimming with a dolphin that turns out to be a great white shark. The fins look similar from a distance.
Accidental Psychopaths. In many cases though, a lack of empathy is a symptom - or a bi-product - of being focused on the more mechanical complexities of business. Someone ordinarily caring and considerate might be stripped of their congeniality when their headspace is clogged up with financial challenges or buggy code. Itâs unintentional, less callous, more⌠thoughtless. These are the people I can help.
Thereâs plenty of virtue signalling going on - callous dictators are good at propaganda, and busy people will have a âStaff Moraleâ tickbox on their to-do list - but cultivating authentic empathy that is neither snake oil or forced fun, takes effort.
My job involves proving that itâs worth the effort. That when you truly understand people - be they your team, your customers, your suppliers or partners - you can achieve even greater successes.
My mission is to prove that âthe good guys can winâ, and that the journey to your destination is as important as the destination itself. In simple terms, if you apply care, kindness and consideration in business, not only will you be MORE successful commercially, youâll also feel great about HOW you achieved that success. Unless youâre a genuine psychopath, obvs.
It doesnât mean suddenly slashing prices or giving things away; it simply means making it as easy as possible for your target audiences to discover, understand, buy and use your products and services. That means understanding their needs and expectations in relation to everything from page layouts to pricing models, naming conventions to product features. In fact, itâs been proven on countless occasions that when customer experience is optimised, pricing can be increased without attrition and without creating barriers to new customers buying from you. Itâs about value, not cost.
Let me know if you could benefit from a fresh perspective in terms of understanding your customers at a deeper level and shaping your business around their preferences.
No psychopaths please. Except maybe accidental ones.