12 As a matter of fact, most lab fellows did not live in the area where Aldrich Bay Market was located. Many of them also had a background different from that of the market tenants and the market users, such that it required some conscientious effort for them to connect with these stakeholders of the Aldrich Bay Market. “I can more easily understand people with similar profile as mine- why going or not going to markets, maybe working people, or young couples... Still I don’t know what old people do in markets... I may see them killing time there, but I don’t know the reason, and I don’t know what they feel.” (Lab fellow L, focus group) Heedful of the complexity of the experiences that the market stakeholders might have, the lab fellows were hesitant to claim that they understood their plights, especially those of the market tenants. Some of them reflected that the more they understood the situation of the market tenants, the greater caution they would have in claiming knowledge of their concerns or feelings. “The more I know, the less I can say I understand, I mean their real worries… We can state in abstract terms ‘probably they think about having no customer’, but do we feel that? Do we share the worries? We probably have to take that to another level.” (Lab Fellow E, focus group) The lab fellows exhibited a careful attitude in claiming knowledge about other people. This careful attitude was illustrative of their respect for the complexity of human experience, which was facilitated by the exposure to various life stories of multiple stakeholders in the Market Lab process. The community deep dive that the lab participants had did not substantially boost their confidence in understanding other people’s mental states, thoughts and emotions beyond their own perspectives and life experiences. Nonetheless, as they stepped outside their comfort zone in the community deep dive, they acquired a humble attitude and were more ready to appreciate the complexity of life. Humility is an enabler of empathetic understanding as it allows productive conversations across differences even when we cannot imagine ourselves as the other (Johnson, 2019)§.
Interplay between logical induction and intuition in community problem solving Pre-post analysis of the survey identifies that the Market Lab process has not produced significant change in the lab participants’ attitude about new ventures and risk taking in problem solving. (
§
Johnson, C.R. (2019). Intellectual Humility and Empathy by Analogy. Topoi 38, 221–228.
