#026 Extraordinary Benefits of Understanding Others with Karen Faith

Henry Ford once said that “if there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from [their] angle as well as from your own.” What Henry Ford was talking about is practicing “cognitive empathy” also known as “perspective taking.” My guest and founder of Others Unlimited, Karen Faith, teaches people in organizations how to be more successful by learning and practicing “cognitive empathy” to achieve better results in communication, trust, culture, collaboration, and many other benefits. 

In this conversation Karen and I talk about different types of empathy, her empathy training curriculum, the benefits of practicing “cognitive empathy,” the importance of personal boundaries, developing what she calls “unconditional welcome,” self awareness, practicing ethnography, and the arc of Karen’s professional journey from musician, to performance artist, to the present day, and the influence of her training in the arts on her work with organizations. Karen also shares her reflections on making business into an art form and how she has transformed deep personal pain into gifts she uses to help people change and grow.  

ABOUT OUR GUEST 

Karen Faith is Founder and CEO of Others Unlimited. She is an ethnographer, strategist, and creator of the Others curriculum. Her findings, talks and workshops have guided initiatives at Google, Indeed, Intuit, Applebee’s, The NBA, The ACLU, Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Federal Reserve Bank, The Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art, and more. Karen is an alumnus of the Hyper Island Business Transformation course in Stockholm, Sweden, and a recipient of the Dwight Conquergood award for ethnographic research at Performance Studies International in London. She has taught her approach to students at Penn State, Juilliard, Chapman University, University of Michigan, Kansas State University, and the National University of Singapore School of Design. She’s presented at SXSW Interactive in Austin (2018 and 2022), DesignUp in Bangalore (2019), HOW Design Live in Chicago (2019), and the 4As Stratfest in NYC (2019, 2021, and 2023). Her TEDx talk on Unconditional Welcome has received nearly 2M views.

ABOUT MAKING BUSINESS ART 

Making Business Art is a podcast for curious people where we explore how to make our work more meaningful and enchanting for ourselves and the people we serve. We draw lessons and inspiration from entrepreneurs, designers, scientists, creative leaders and artists about creating remarkable experiences that light up our customers and our teams.

This podcast is the creation of and hosted by me, Ezequiel Williams. I am an entrepreneur, innovation strategist, facilitator, and business designer. I help leaders and teams see their challenges differently and find ways to deliver value that are more desirable and satisfying for the people they serve. I am very curious and love to learn about how things work, what makes people tick, and how to create more joy in the world.  

Instagram: @MakingBusinessArt