The Long Game of Human

Want the good news or the bad news? There is no quick fix to transformation and change. It takes time and effort. That said, I don’t really see this as inherently ‘bad’ but rather an opportunity for growth.

The bottom line is that to be an effective human manager and human overall you do the work, and you do it repeatedly and consistently. This is the core philosophy behind my work with clients.

Being human is a long game- particularly for those of us who’ve been conditioned for many years of corporate life to be overly robotic.

It’s not easy to flick the switch and is like rewiring an old house.

The image above is of me displaying the first cut of what 'BeingHuman' as a manager looked like.

It was literally a brain dump some 11 years ago (note the long game) starting with banging the word 'TRUST' centre stage on the page.

From there it has morphed, hit roadblocks, and continues to evolve into now what I'm excited to be launching in late 2022 - The Human Manager Academy.

It takes considered and intentional effort and education to change a course. It involves changing the way you interact with people and the foundations of your relationships. It means a shift in mindset in being more than ok to fail but actively looking at failure as a learning opportunity. None of this happens after a professional development experience, no matter how incredible it is- and yes, I’m referring to mine! It’s a long-haul scenario.

We’ve all had those experiences that are borderline Tony Robins-esque. We’re fists to the air, inspired and excited to change the world, starting with ourselves. Then life and work gets in the way.

People are 'busy' and are pulled in a million different directions. They get bogged down in the detail and grit of the day. I see this all the time. No matter how pumped people are as they leave my Human Manager Experience - and pumped they are as per the feedback I receive - if they don’t put mechanisms in place to embed their learning, when the wheels fall off, when the Board wants a detailed strategy report with 45 minutes notice, when the God-forsaken meeting room booking system crashes yet again, it’s easier to simply revert back to the BAU of robotic managing.

This is why my experience has a three-phase structure that takes people from dependency to accountability, with the overall goal of being a better human:

? Educate ? Experiment ? Embed

Educate refers to learning new concepts and reinforcing current human behaviours that benefit you and those in your care. In the context of my work, it is explaining the evidence-base behind my human-manager concept, what it looks like in practice, and the outcomes and benefits a human approach yields.

Experiment is moving towards action, one experiment at a time. It’s bringing to life a whole new perspective on what it means to lead with authentic integrity and vulnerability.

Embed is where the experiments become the standard way we do things beyond the initial learning.

The embedding is where things get real. I love a good analogy, and the best one for embedding is thinking of it as where the rubber hits the road. It’s where what we learn (Education) becomes lived, daily experience through doing what we’ve discovered best works for us (Experiment). It’s also where organisations get the ROI on their investment in the humans, and more importantly, where lives change as people lean into their human selves.

Experimenting and embedding involve an understanding of ability, capability, and capacity as well as clear, easy ways to bring the concepts to everyday life. Understanding (ie education) why the human traits of belonging and connection are critical to leading a high-performing team is pointless if it’s not linked to an actual action-based strategy (aka embedding) to bring the concept to life. It’s easy for good intentions to get lost in a frenetic GSD and KPI-focused environment, which is why stickability is essential. But what (and how) to embed?

While I said that there’s no quick fix, there are quick and easy actions that people can take to change their management style to human. It involves meaningful actions that trigger memories and link to learning. Enter experimentation. Experimentation is a way to validate different approaches and it encourages and enables reflection. It’s a real suck it and see perspective that requires curiosity and a willingness to fail. A friend recently told me about their child doing a study skills program at high school where they were taught a range of study and revision techniques. The ‘arty’ kids gravitated immediately to the coloured sharpies and giant sheets of paper for mind mapping, the ‘maths geeks’ went straight for the formulas and charts. What I love about this story is the teacher actively encouraged these kids to try a few different methodologies to see what felt most intuitive, but to also try strategies that felt different from anything they’d experienced before. What a way to get kids to get uncomfortably comfortable! Imagine this willingness to try different strategies to embed learning in the workplace.

It’s the people who look for bandaid solutions and short-term wins that tend to have the most difficulty with embedding sustainable human-led change in their organisations.

I write a little about short-termism here, but to paraphrase, it’s when people acknowledge and embrace a long game mentality that they see lasting change. This looks different for different people- one of my clients loves the concept of 'stickability prompts' that is a big part of my upcoming Human Manager Academy and will add them to their daily to-do and to-be lists, another has a checklist (laminated, no less) behind their computer screen with the daily ‘human’ actions that they’ve discovered via experimentation to be meaningful to their understanding of their learnings with me. Bottom line- it’s an approach that’s repeated, consistent and intentional. It’s the polar opposite of a robot.

I absolutely love that moment when someone sees how bloody easy it is to embed a simple action into their daily life to be a human manager. When they make that connection between understanding and action and the impact it has on their leadership? Next level rewarding.

For more information about how I can be of support, or to find out more about the upcoming launch and the multiple delivery pathways of the Human Manager Academy shoot me a LI message, and let’s chat!