Many people have long recognized the importance of empathy in building healthy relationships. In recent years, educational research has also highlighted the importance of developing empathy in students to support their academic growth and achievement as well as to equip them for success in their professional lives.
Teachers find that empathy deepens and enriches a student’s academic experience by enabling students to expand their intellectual horizons, connect to bigger ideas and themes that matter in the world, and to more thoughtfully understand perspectives that are different from their own. Teachers and students increasingly recognizing the value of empathy in doing academic research, practicing the scientific method, solving problems, reading literature, communicating ideas to others, understanding history, and creating effective teams. While professionals who work in counseling and human services have always valued empathy, there is also a growing recognition of the value of empathy in many other fields, including scientific research, technology development, product design, and entrepreneurship. Empathy is increasingly seen as a critical competency, necessary for students in leading healthy, productive, and purposeful lives in the world today.
On the first day of class, student entrepreneurs interview customers to inform their product design
In the course I teach on entrepreneurship, empathy turns out to be essential in the work of building a successful startup company. On the first day of my entrepreneurship class, the students hear something surprising: “Your customers do not exist to buy. You exist for them.” This concept is at the heart of the lean startup methodology developed by Steve Blank at Stanford University. Many students are initially surprised, I think, because they imagine the purpose of starting a business is to convince others to buy their product. In the real world of business startups, however, launching a product without extensive customer input and review often leads to costly and unnecessary business failures at the outset. The lean startup methodology begins by encouraging would-be entrepreneurs to better understand the customers’ need or problem. By starting with a real need or problem, and then continually refining the design solution to meet that need more effectively, the startup entrepreneur is in the strongest position to launch a successful and profitable new product.
Students in my class also gain valuable lessons by better understanding the experience of real entrepreneurs. Students work closely with two CEOs during the first six weeks of the class, helping to solve real-life business problems associated with two startup companies. During the last eight weeks of the class, several business mentors participate in helping students design their own startup companies, and a panel of highly experienced entrepreneurs serve as a “shark tank” as our students pitch their new product ideas. While the students in my class certainly benefit by learning a college-level curriculum on entrepreneurship, the greatest lessons in this class come from the opportunity for more personal interaction and mentorship with business experts who bring deep insight and real-life experience.
If you are interested in learning more how an entrepreneurial mindset can be used in teaching any subject, I encourage you to look into the Korda method at Wildfire Education.
Jay Scheurle 