LTYM - Working in Other Shoes

Letters to a Young Manager

Working in Other Shoes, #560
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Please note that this letter is in-process; the following are my notes

Dear Adam,

***

I had two managers in a classic IT department. One ran operations and the other ran applications development. They were constantly criticizing each other, each feeling they could do the job better.

So I had them switch roles. The app's manager ran operations and the ops manager ran applications. They soon gained an appreciation for the challenges in the other's role. And they began to defend the new department. They also brought new perspectives to departments set in their ways. Productivity and performance zoomed.

It worked so well that we extended the experiment twice. This form of structural empathy, working in other's shoes, like walking in other's shoes, changed opinions more and developed a greater sense of "we" in the department.

***

Sincerely yours,
Ed

________________________

References...

Takeaways:

Structural empathy can resolve conflicts in unexpected ways

Discussion Questions:

For Further Reading: