In our recent live webinar poll, 74% respondents agreed that communications in their organisation would benefit from greater empathy in planning and delivery. We were asking specifically about communications in transformation programmes. But if communications tend to lack empathy in delicate organisational change situations, it’s likely that there’s even less empathetic consideration given to communication in other less sensitive and everyday scenarios. This is a problem when it gets in the way of landing important corporate, brand and HR messages with patients, employees and other stakeholders.
Perhaps your immediate reaction to the mention of empathy is one of slight distaste. That’s understandable. Empathy has become a bit of a dirty word. Some self-professed empaths have been noisily called out for virtue-signalling and narcissism. But that’s not what real empathy is about. The Cambridge dictionary defines empathy as ‘the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.’ In communications, empathy should not be a performative or self-serving behaviour: it’s about focus, relevance and ultimately, effectiveness.
The difference between two types of empathy
In recent discussions at The Difference Collective, we’ve concluded that there are (at least) two different types of empathy – and both have value in communications. Emotional empathy is about recognising people’s feelings and reactions to information. But less commonly asserted is practical empathy, which means seeking to understand how people’s environment and workstyle may affect the way they receive and process communications. As Difference consultant Stuart Mayell puts it, “To understand the motivations of different individuals is one thing, but also, we need to understand their practical, day-to-day working lives.”
Practical empathy embraces resources and workstyles
Change communications leader Julie Saunders has some good examples of what practical empathy can mean: “Today, we use digital channels a lot to communicate. But they are not always going to work, for example to communicate with people on manufacturing lines with no access to laptops, who don’t engage with the organisation in digital ways.” For those who may not have such means, time or devices in their workday, analogue alternatives like wall posters and canteen table talkers are vital.
Practical empathy also means taking the time to understand the nuances of different cultural, functional and geographic experiences. There’s unlikely to be one single, simple and universal piece of communication that will effectively and equally engage every person in a global organisation, with their different backgrounds, roles and motivations. Julie adds, “On one project, we looked at how to encourage behavioural change for a global organisation, in teams based in different locations. We arrived at the behavioural psychological approach of using language geared ‘towards’ a goal or ‘away from’ something people were trying to move on from. It really helped us frame the rationale in our communication and the way we expressed what we were asking them to do.”
The message house doesn’t feel like home for everyone
Most communicators use frameworks such as a message house or value proposition to help structure brand, product or stakeholder campaigns. They’re helpful to ensure that key messages and their hierarchies are consistent and provide a clear foundation for every deliverable. These messages address the gamut of stakeholders, but it’s important to apply practical empathy in recognising differences in their application.
For example, in a strategic communication, overarching profit and performance messages aren’t always relevant to employees’ immediate concerns about their roles, workstyles, responsibilities and remuneration. We need to address these concerns directly and at an early stage in a communications plan. The art of a skilled and experienced communications lead is to convey more detailed, targeted information in context of the overall framework, in a credible and comprehensible way.
Using empathy to keep consistency and manage variation
Communicators know that different stakeholder groups will have different priorities, but by the time communications land, key messages may have been smoothed and edited to a point of being generic. Rob Gallo, a change communications expert, counsels, “In pharma, there are three centricities that we’re working with – customer, patient and employee. They all require empathy and yet sometimes we use them as buzzwords and don’t actually adapt communications and programmes in a human enough way.”
But how far should we take our empathetic approach in segmentation for communications planning and delivery? Customisation and personalisation are time-consuming and resource intensive. Realistically, there’s a limit to the degree of empathy we can apply: it’s seldom possible to tailor a communication for every single individual’s unique experience and standpoint. Experienced professionals can navigate this by identifying key factors in the range of prior experiences, perspectives, attitudes, pressures, pre-conceptions, hopes, fears and sensitivities and ensuring that communication is shaped to focus on priorities in context for each defined and addressable audience.
Emotional empathy doesn’t work in every situation
Emotional empathy has its place in communications too, in terms of choosing a humanising tone, style and approach appropriate to the feelings of the recipient audience. But The Difference Collective’s consultant Andrew Thomas advises caution: it’s important not to make assumptions. “In a typical pharma company, there is a huge mix of personality types across different functions. Some departments overall are more receptive to change than others. We need empathy to help move everyone through the change cycle and maximise performance. But arguably, in some functions, emotional empathy is typically not as critical. For more analytical types, it’s about a crisp and rational explanation.”
Excessive emotional empathy can also undermine trust and authenticity, when communications executions attempt to sugar-coat challenging messages and unwelcome information. There are times when legal or commercial factors make it impossible to be fully transparent in communication. Simply acknowledging and describing these limitations may seem unfeeling, but it’s more empathetic than a patronising attempt to justify, ignore or deny a lack of information and insight that the recipients can see for themselves.
The balanced approach: engaging practical empathy with personal sensitivity
Practical empathy in communications means listening to colleagues and audiences throughout the process and making in-flight adjustments to communication where needed. It means crafting messages in a way that people can absorb, and recognising resources and environments that may influence communication reception, as well as personal and subjective factors.
Emotional empathy is also important for many audiences, particularly at the point of communication delivery. But it’s not just about sensitive phrasing. An empathetic, people-centric approach must be integral to the overarching design of the communications programme.
Please get in touch if you need an individual transformation communications expert or a multi-skilled team to support your organisation with emotionally intelligent communications that are designed to land clearly and create an effective impact.
About The Difference Collective
We build bespoke, full-service teams to meet your healthcare consultancy, content and communications needs, delivering exceptional results for our clients’ strategic priorities and projects. We work for the best and most ambitious organisations in pharma and healthcare. We’re Different from traditional healthcare communications agencies because we have more experience, we offer better value and – most importantly – we achieve exceptional results.