The importance of empathy in technical communication
Speaker: Malachy Lavelle
Director of Information Solutions (Documentation and Localisation) at Avaya
Session information
The speaker will share insights on how empathy and emotional intelligence impact our work as technical communicators.
What is our job – really? Which parts of it are means to an end, and which is the end itself? How do empathy and emotional intelligence help us in answering these questions and setting a vision for how to be exemplars in our profession?
About Malachy Lavelle
Malachy Lavelle is Director of Information Solutions (Documentation and Localisation) at Avaya. He is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction for customer information delivery, overseeing the staffing allocations, and reviewing/responding to customer escalations. He leads a team of over 60 staff across 12 global locations (including India, Turkey, Serbia, Czech Republic, UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada). He was a quality assurance lead for Nortel from 1998 to 2009. In 2009, he re-founded Nortel’s internal documentation department in Galway after it was previously outsourced. Shortly after, Nortel was acquired by Avaya in 2009, and he became Avaya’s global documentation lead in 2017.
Mal holds a BA in Archaeology and Latin from University College, Galway, and a Graduate Diploma in Computing from the University of Limerick. He is currently in his second year of a part-time MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour at University of Limerick. Mal has a love of the outdoors; he has been a leader in Scouting Ireland for over 15 years and is currently a member of the Hillwalking Adventure Skill expert panel. He also enjoys singing n choirs (though that’s been on hold since COVID-19!) In the documentation world, Mal has a special interest in the human factor and how writers can leverage emotional intelligence to provide excellent end-user outcomes.
