Emotional Intelligence in Design Education

By Rafe Steinhauer and A. Mecquel

A. Mecquel is a kinesthetic teacher and lecturer integrating applications of mindfulness and embodiment within entrepreneurship at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts and Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. Bio.

Rafe Steinhauer is a visiting assistant professor of design thinking at Tulane University’s Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking. Bio.

What follows is an approximation of the session we led at the 2020 Future of Design in Higher Education Convening (online) on June 12, 2020. If you want to use a version of this exercise in your courses, please do so, but we ask that you let us know and cite our work. Thanks!

Rafe: Mecquel and I have worked together on Princeton University’s Tiger Challenge and we’re currently co-teaching an eight-week open online class, Embodying Design Mindsets.

Practicing “show, don’t tell” we are going to ask for your participation in two miniaturized exercises. Our activities will involve journaling, so grab something to write with. {Please give this a try as you read along on Medium!}

Mecquel and I have developed exercises cultivating skills of emotional intelligence and bodily intelligence that support: Identifying friction and constraints; Immersing; Noticing intuition; Authenticity; Creativity; Abductive reasoning; Feedback; Imagination; And more!

Mecquel: Let’s begin with a short investigation. If you are able, stand up. We are going to work with some movement. If you have some things in the way, you might want to quickly make space; don’t be concerned if you have limited space….we will use whatever you have.

1. Feeling hands — Bring the palms of your hands together. Let the hands rest against one another with only as much pressure as is needed to make contact. Feel. Feel where your hands touch one another and where there is space. Now, with the slightest pressure possible, begin to slide your hands across one another. Feel the sensation. Notice how intense it is with such a light touch. Feel the texture of your skin. Begin to let your hands slide all-around one another as if you are washing your hands. Feel how the sensations change with different textures of skin. How much can you notice? Let your arms rest by your side.
2. Shifting weight forward and back on the feet — Now, similar to how you felt your hands resting against one another, feel the soles of your feet to the floor (or in your shoes). Let your feet spread long and wide to the surface that you are making contact with. Begin to shift your weight forward so that your weight is over the ball mounds of your feet. Feel this in your feet, in your body. What is it like to be in front of yourself? Begin to shift your weight back so that your weight is over your heels. What does this feel like in your body? What has changed? Feel what it is like to be behind yourself. Let’s do this again, shifting your weight forward, notice what has changed. Shifting your weight back, notice how this is different. Now bring your weight over the center of your feet. Notice what it is like to feel balanced and connected with the floor.
3. Walking forward and then backward — Let’s begin to walk forward. Use whatever space you have. Observe your body, how you move when you are walking forward, notice how your body feels. Now pause, and hold…let’s begin to walk backward. Notice what has changed. How does this feel different? Notice how you are using your feet. How has your perception changed? Are you using different senses when moving backward? Pause, and hold…begin to walk forward. What is different? How does your body feel, act, move, respond? What are you noticing? How does it feel to move forward in space? And pause…again, begin to walk backward. Notice how this feels. How has it changed? How does your body move, respond. What does it feel like to move backward in space? And pause…

Find a seat. What did you notice? How did it feel different walking forwards or backward? Quick two-minute journal reflection.

Rafe: We’re now going to go into an exercise on empathy. But before we do: I want to take a quick temperature check. How do you feel about exploring/discussing empathy today? Jot a sentence or two in your journal.

{Pause as people drop responses into Zoom chat}

Thank you for sharing the temperature check. I noticed that it’s mostly positive but with a few more conflicted responses, too. Great.

Empathy is an increasingly polarizing topic in design education. And there are pitfalls discussing empathy, especially as two white instructors at well-resourced universities. I was talking with a friend at another university a few months ago. She said, “We should stop talking about empathy in design [education], it has become a meaningless term and, in fact, it can do harm.”

I know what she meant. But I also thought, “Wait, we teach these courses. So ‘empathy’ is only as meaningless and harmful as we make it.”

So today is about empathy and our supposition that ignoring empathy is as harmful as teaching it without emotional intelligence. This lesson is just one example of how we are trying to hypercharge our design education by teaching both emotional intelligence and bodily intelligence explicitly.

One framework for empathy Mecquel and I have used is Daniel Goleman’s. He describes three types of empathy:

• Cognitive Empathy. I can cognitively describe another’s emotions: “Oh Mecquel is sad. I can tell that she is sad.”
• Emotional Empathy. I share a derivative emotional experience: “I feel sad when Mecquel shares about a loss in her life.” That is not to say that my experience of sadness is the same as Mecquel’s experience of sadness. It never is. It’s just that each of our individual experiences shares a root emotion.
• Empathic Concern. I can sense a need related to an emotion: “I feel a pull to do something for Mecquel when she shares about her loss. I have a visceral urge to help.”

All of these are useful to design research but only if we can differentiate them from each other and not act impulsively when we feel them. One of the critiques of empathy, especially empathic concern, is that it can result in savior impulse, especially when power differentials are at play. But that is not a critique of feeling empathic concern, it is a critique of acting upon it unconsciously, without considering power, context, or unintended consequences.

Emotional intelligence is noticing our own emotions and feelings so that we can act with greater consciousness. If I have cultivated my ability to notice my cognitive, emotional, and visceral experiences of another’s emotion, I am more equipped to pause and then act with greater intention, perhaps by first asking others how and if I might help.

The critiques (and fatigue) of ‘empathy’ are valid, but I believe they are critiques of how we teach and sell empathy, not of the importance of empathic experience, itself. Empathy makes us human; some scholars even believe it is an evolutionary source of morality. All the more reason why we need to teach it with greater cognitive, emotional, and bodily awareness.

Let’s give it a try! We are going to watch a short animated film: “Snack Attack” by Eduardo Verastegui. We are going to watch it twice wearing two different hats. For our first hat, we’re going to just immerse ourselves in the movie. Be with the characters.

Now that you’ve just watched the video, record in your journal how you felt as you watched it. How did you feel when the main character was grappling with the vending machine, when she sat down on the bench, when she was interacting with the other character, when she was on the train? Recall your emotional journey as a viewer.

{Pause for journaling}

Now we’re going to watch the same film again, but this time with the hat of cognitive empathy: as analytic investigators. While you watch the video this time, list in your journal the emotions you identify the characters expressing. No full sentences, just list emotions you notice such as, “anger” “joy” “frustration” etc.

Copy-and-paste the list of emotions you identified into the Zoom chat. {Medium note: The list of emotions our Embodying Deign Mindsets class identified is at the bottom of this post}. This exercise helps build emotional literacy. Sometimes we hand out a dictionary of emotions, such as this one from the Center for Nonviolent Communication. Another application of this video exercise is training for interviewing in pairs (sometimes called “ethnographic interview,” “contextual interviews,” or “empathy interviews”): the primary interviewer might wear the first hat — being present, immersed and curious about the interviewee’s lived experience which leads to their own emotional experience; the primary notetaker might wear the second hat — a bit more emotionally removed but attentively observing and recording experiences and emotions that the interviewee expresses.

When we have more time in the lesson, we often transition from here into three-person breakout rooms and practice paired-interviewing with these two hats.

This is just one lesson for teaching emotional intelligence explicitly in our design education. Some other ways cultivating emotional and bodily intelligence might hypercharge our education:

• Curiosity. What is the feeling of immersing openly?
• Assumptions and biases. How might noticing my emotions serve as an early indication of an assumption or bias?
• Manipulating qualities. How does each shade of grey make me feel? How does each texture make me feel? Which felt and emotional experience match what I might want to create?
• Intuition. How do I distinguish between the excitement of a premature hunch versus the gut feeling of an emerging breakthrough?
• Positionality. What are my identities, experiences, and ways I’ve been acculturated? How do I feel about those identities, experiences, and cultures? How does that affect how I design (and engage with others)? How do I feel when doing this reflection and analysis? Cautious? Curious? Defensive? Eager?
• Conversations about race, gender, identity, power. How can being aware of my feelings increase my stamina for conversations about race and difference? How can being aware of my feelings help me identify when I am in a place of wanting to engage versus wanting to self-protect? Can I notice and interrupt when I’m drawn to the fallacy of “one right answer/approach?”
• Pull and creativity. What am I drawn to create? Why? How do I “go to the flow” with that pull?
• Asking for feedback. Do I want feedback? How is my emotional language and body language affecting my ask for feedback?
• Giving feedback and critique. From where am I giving feedback? From wanting to teach and look smart? From wanting to make others happy and like me? Or from what I genuinely felt and observed about what was shared with me?
• And many more!

Mecquel: One of the things that I am noticing across institutions, educational programs, departments, and organizations, is that the organizations who value emotional intelligence are faring much better than those that do not at this moment. In fact, we may consider some of the instances that we know where the responses have been examples of panic, making choices from automatic and default modes. We all know the research that supports significant advantages of high levels of emotional intelligence within the workplace, education, as leaders, individuals, in relationships, and as parents. Dan Goleman, in his book Emotional Intelligence, states that as the language of the rational is verbal, whereas the language of the emotional is nonverbal.

You will notice that all of the exercises/experiences that Rafe and I led you through today took you into some kind of felt experience: feeling weight changes, sensing movement, forward and backward in space, sensing emotion, contrasting that with the sensation of perceiving an emotion. This is what makes teaching emotional intelligence challenging: How do you teach something that is predominantly felt and can only later be verbalized? In our work, we create situations that artificially prompt the primary feeling in the body that accompanies experiences such as intuition, inspiration, perspective; and we identify it, which creates the opportunity to observe, practice, and cultivate these skills.

I would like to take you back to the two exercises that we worked with. If you can remember the sensation of walking backward. Take a moment to remember it in your body. You might notice that as you couldn’t see where you were going you were required to sense, to feel. In fact, your movement slowed dramatically and you may have experienced the space around you more as a vague quality to navigate where increased faculties were necessary to successfully orient. This may have been similar to the sensation that you had when we practiced the skill of emotional empathy and empathic concern while watching the video with Rafe. Contrast that with what it felt like to be walking forward. See you if you can remember the sensation in your body. Walking forward, we were able to use a much more practiced and accessible skill for many of us, of seeing. In fact, we had to do very little sensing, it was all in front of us and we could primarily go on automatic or default mode. Notice if this feels similar to how you felt when in cognitive empathy or perspective-taking?

Most of us agree that emotional intelligence is important; while we may have an instinctual sense of how to use these skills, and we can recognize when someone else has them or doesn’t, we often don’t have a clear sense of what it is exactly, or how to cultivate and widen our skill base.

It is even trickier to know how to support others in cultivating these skills effectively. Some of the questions that Rafe and I are asking are: how do we cultivate emotional intelligence as a skilled practice so that we can personally and professionally build our base and effective use of these skills while giving our students the necessary experiences of seeing, feeling, hearing, identifying, and reflecting with supportive and accurate feedback loops that lead to increased awareness and growth, so that we can all utilize these skill sets optimally, effectively, and with clarity.

Thank you!

References:

• Center for Nonviolent Communication. Feelings Vocabulary List. 2020. https://www.cnvc.org/training/resource/feelings-inventory
• Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. 1994. Bantam Books: New York, NY.
• Goleman, Daniel. What is Empathy? And why it’s important. HBR Emotional Intelligence Series: Empathy. 2017. Harvard Business Review Press: Cambridge, MA
• Verastegui, Eduardo. Snack Attack video. © 2016 Eduardo Verastegui. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38y_1EWIE9I

A combined list of emotions identified by students during the second watch of the video in our course, Embodying Design Mindsets: Frustration, disgust, anger, surprise, regret, remorse, lonely, disbelief, fear, frustration, happiness, & sorrow, surprise, anticipation, frustration, fear, anger, exasperation, satisfaction, disbelief, indignant, sadness, grief, resentment, gratitude, guilt, Neutral, frustrated, happy, confused, annoyed, really annoyed, confused, resolved, Anger, Madness, Hungry, curious, excited, frustrated, alone, helpless, obstinate, relentless, relieved, excited, content, scared, confused, invaded, irritated, beleaguered, angry, fed up, disillusioned, hopeless, foolish, connected, Surprised, Relieved, Delighted, Joy, hunger, joy, anticipation, frustration, desperation, anger, rage, pain, relief, solace, happiness, contentment, indignation, retribution, bargaining, hopelessness, safety, horror, embarrassment, regret, shame, hope, kindness, love, Savoring, Excited, anticipating, frustrated, angry, determined, pleased, proud, delighted, appalled, shocked, irate, unbelievable, furious, disgusted, angry, shocked, annoyed, appalled, surprised, sorry, sad, Shocked, Desire. Frustration. Relief. Annoyance. Anger. Desperation. Vengeful. EPIPHANY. Proud/regretful, Excited, Frustrated, Disappointed, Angry, Relieved/Triumphant, Relaxed, Violated, Betrayed, Upset/Hurt, Disgusted, Horror, Delighted, Content, joy frustrated angry desperate joy confused angry sad confused sad embarrassed mortified gratified by the guy in the end, Indignant, Breezy Anticipatory Happy Satisfied Striving Surprised Frustrated Angry Determined Frantic Infuriated Hurt Satisfied Self Satisfied Surprised Shocked Indignant Urgent Angry Shocked Infuriated Spiteful Exasperated Disgusted Resigned Revelatory Weary Comfortable Loving Thankful, condescension, frustration, blissful, interest glad anticipate uh oh frustration anger rage exasperation rage surprise hope eureka satisfaction anticipation enjoyment delight snide surprise — outrage unheard frustration negotiation rage exasperation confusion memory annoyance realization sweet appreciation, exasperated embarrassed epiphanic Judgy resentful admiring Recognition, wonder, frustration, judgement, embarrassment, happiness, generosity, kindness generous, happy, pleased, annoyed, frustrated, determined, pleased, enjoying, indignant, helpful, angry, tolerant, cooperative, furious, disbelieving, exasperated, incredulous, surprised, remorseful, tender, Tired, Intrigue, frustration, determination, satisfied, joyful, appalled, indignation, anger, sadness, competitive, madness, righteousness, appalled, anger, surprise, judgementful, admiration/joy, happy, frustrated, enraged, mad rage, victorious, content, astounded, bewildered, angry, confrontational, enraged, reflective, guilty.

Please reach out if you are interested in this work! You can contact either of us via LinkedIn (Rafe | Mecquel) or our bios on our university websites.