
Workshop 3:
BUILDING EMPATHY AND TRUST
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Aims for Workshop 3:
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Empathy mapping: How our clients/stakeholders think, feel and act
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Listening for task and emotion
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Building relationship capital: Legitimacy, Credibility and Trust
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Building Trust: Authenticity, Logic, Empathy
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Finding the win:win
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Moments of need
SOCIAL CONNECTION
Human skills:
- Listening
- Empathy
- Patience
- Difficult conversations
- Effective confrontation
Building Relationship Capital
The components are:
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Legitimacy:
Social legitimacy is based on established norms, the norms of the community, that may be legal, social and cultural and both formal and informal in nature. Organisations must know and understand the norms of the community and be able to work with them as they represent the local ‘rules of the game’. Failure to do so risks rejection. In practice, the initial basis for social legitimacy comes from engagement with all members of the community and providing information on the project, the organisation and what may happen in the future and then answering any and all questions.
Credibility:
The capacity to be credible is largely created by consistently providing true and clear information and by complying with any and all commitments made to the community. Credibility is often best established and maintained through agreements where the rules, roles and responsibilities of the organisation and the community are negotiated, defined and consolidated. Such a framework helps manage expectations and reduces the risk losing credibility by being perceived as in breach of promises made, a situation common where relationships have not been properly defined. A tip to company people – avoid making verbal commitments since, in the absence of a permanent record, these are always open to reinterpretation at a later date.
Trust:
Trust, or the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another, is a very high quality of relationship and one that takes both time and effort to create. True trust comes from shared experiences. The challenge for an organisation is to go beyond transactions with the community and create opportunities to collaborate, work together and generate the shared experiences within which trust can grow.
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Developing Trust and Relationships
A relationship is a set of mutual expectations about each other's behaviour based on past interactions with one another
Relationships are determined by economies of time and emotion, investment and return. We are more frugal when it comes to remote layers and consequently the benefits of these relationships decrease proportionately.
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You're not full of sh*t!
I like what you bring
You care about me
Managing Emotions
When your brain gets flooded with emotion it loses the capacity to think
Anger
Joy
Surprise
Disgust
Sad
Fear
6 core emotions
Being able to name the emotion as it surfaces is a great way to control them coming out as impulses
How do we build relationships at different stages of a project lifecycle:
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When I'm in a project
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When I'm not in a project
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When I'm in transition
Moving to Action
After workshop 3 you have the opportunity to put the thinking into action. Before the next workshop consider the phase of assignment you are with your client. Complete an Empathy Map and be ready to share it back at the next workshop.
Outputs from Workshop 3
FDM Strategic Consulting program
Building Empathy and trust
Who we are and what we bring...

What is the purpose of this team?
To evolve FDM's Business Model, by really understanding our client's challenges and ambitions, and to bring more value (in both outcomes and experiences) to them, and FDM consultants

What does success look like for this team in the next 24 months?

Our progress to date...

Ahead of the workshop, you rated your relationships with your clients.
The responses were:
Put yourself in the shoes of your client. Share in 2 or 3 sentences how they would describe the value you bring to them personally and the relationship they have with you.
I help to provide insight for the client on our programmes and consultants skillset, maybe excitement when they gain clarity of FDM's new offerings
Using E.ON as an example: Extensive commercial experience in supporting clients across multiple sectors, and I was able to bring in executive sponsorship from FDM to support the the relationship. The relationship has been professional, but was able to establish a good understanding of what works best for all.
Really understands the challenges we are facing and is providing good suggestions for us to consider.
FDM offers professional IT talents, trained professionally and saves their client's budget and risk, with no long-term commitment. FDM consultants are also a reliable way to expand the client's talent pool, especially clients can include them in the team before they are hired as long-term employees.
The value I bring personally to the client is stakeholder relationships that are external to the core team, removing political or personal relationships from affecting the work. I also add neutral solutions not influenced by working at the business, which creates a relationship of trust and honesty
I am open and honest and can be trusted to act as a sounding board without fear of embarrassment to them. Any advice given has a root in wider experience rather than purely being sales-driven.
The ability to deliver above their expectations. A pragmatic and open way of dealing with any issues that arise. there is trust in the relationship but still just at a professional level
A longstanding relationship. The model works well for us and we always work together to smooth out difficulties. He's also genuinely passionate about his industry. It's never the usual sale call, he spends time sharing what he sees and trying to get into the depth of our problems.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best, most trusting relationship they have with anyone in their team/organisation) what would they score your relationship?
Average score: 6.625
Range: 4-8
Empathy mapping exercise:





Looking forward to Workshop 4
Workshop 4 will focus on 'Building stakeholder coalitions'
We'll move from building a deep understanding of the problem and the problem owners, to bringing their perspectives together with yours to start to co-create options and solutions.