Elevating The Human Experience To Self-Actualize

“Obviously the most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do.” Abraham Maslow

In many cases, company leaders may not fully understand the depth involved when they describe their people as the product of their business. It has become more of a cliché. There is more to people being the product of a company. Leaders who want to make their people the product of their company should focus on designing a culture that is centered around treating people as humans.

Bob Chapman realized that business can be the most powerful force in the world when you focus on making your people your products. Because in the end, it isn’t really about the product but the people. Business from start to finish is all about people. He said:

“When you see your people as your purpose rather than just as skills used to raise the share price or create your own wealth, it changes everything.?Our people are our product.?I will not leave this Earth proud of the equipment we built but proud of the people that designed and built it.”

It used to be that a business starts with the idea of creating and serving customers. Employees are simply the tools that are used to achieve that particular goal. A company's culture was defined by how to trigger the right behavior in employees to create amazing customer service and experience. No one cared how the employee felt. It was all about the bottom line: profit. When the customer is satisfied, the business makes a profit.

However, as people make discoveries, businesses evolve. Where people were seen only as their role and function in a company, business leaders started realizing they are humans. Everyone in a company has a family that cares for them and expects the best from them. From management, it moves to leadership as the stewards of life. Leaders began to see their employees as humans entrusted to their care. They, therefore, have the great responsibility to send them home each day better and happy.

As work evolved, so also did culture.?Business leaders now see the culture of an organization differently, in a human way. While the business model creates economic value, the culture creates human value. Culture is now the engine for the production of better humans at work. It is no longer about just values to determine the behavior of employees but about creating value for the employee.

The business model is the way a company creates value that resonates emotionally with its customers, delivers value to wow them, and captures value as profit (economic value). Human-Centered Culture then became the way the same company creates value that entices its employees, delivers value as happiness, transformation, fulfillment, and experience, and captures value as engagement, innovation, productivity, and performance.

To make your people your product, you will have to ask the following questions:

1. How do you see your people? You should see them as humans not functions or the role they play or number.

2. What do you do for your people? You should ensure that your people are not tools for your success but the principal reason you are in business. You have to measure success by the impact you make in their lives.

3. What do you provide for them? You should provide people with a purpose and a cause so they can find meaning and fulfillment at work and live significantly.

4. Who do they become? You should help your people become better humans, spouses, parents, and citizens. Who your people are becoming is more important than what they are being paid.

5. How do they feel about work? You should ensure that your people feel great at work and love being there. If they feel great about work, they will go home happy and not stressed.

6. How do they treat their families? You should treat your people the same way you will treat your children. The way you treat them at work impacts the way they treat their families and neighbors.

Two Roles of Company

To make your people your product, the company needs to focus on these two roles:

1. Providing People With A Purpose & Cause

With a purpose and cause that is bigger than life, people will move from just having a job for the sake of the money they will be paid to seeing work as a calling to find meaning and fulfillment. When people make the shift from survival to security and finally to freedom, they make great things happen.

2. Transforming People To Be Leaders

Companies should measure success by how they have been able to transform every one of their people into a leader. A Truly Human Company is a company of leaders. They develop leaders.

Human-centered culture enables employees in a company to self-actualize, discover, develop and deploy their potential, and grow to contribute as much as they can.