People & Process - It could just happen!

In my line of work, I get to meet people who are passionate about “people”. Whether it’s the HR and L&D professionals or the OD, Change leaders or the Occupational Psychologists. All of them are deeply and personally invested in the interests of “people”. You will struggle to find a nicer bunch of people to work with.

More recently, I’ve been talking with a lot more “process” people. Each of them is diligent, intelligent and highly engaged in designing and delivering ever more efficient and agile models, processes and procedures. Deeply invested in their own work and passion, they too have been easy to engage with and fascinating to spend time with.

What’s most intriguing is that the two “parties” – the Process people and the People people – don’t seem to talk to each other very much.

Each of them knows about the other, but there’s been no common thread, vernacular, taxonomy or objective that ties them together in a common purpose.

Until now.

The COVID Pandemic has created an entirely new dynamic. The sudden lack of momentum and the critical mass of Business as Usual and of relentless pressure to “just react” has created a hiatus that for some has proven to be cathartic. Of course, it’s been painful, diabolical, challenging and scary too but, I’ve seen businesses of all types and sizes finding value in the enforced “pause” of what was normal and many are coming to the view that what was BAU before is not going to be BAU any longer.

So what?

It’s created space for organisations and the people in them to stop and think. As the Process people now re-think, re-plan and re-design around “what next and how?”, the People people are asking a similar question “what next and who?”.

It almost seems like it’s the same question but from a different perspective…

Before COVID the silos in organisations had built up to be self-serving and self-referring bastions and each party and department was almost “designed” to be frustrated and confused by the other.

Post COVID, I wonder now if there is a clearer, more common purpose. Now that out of necessity, we’ve had to break down the silos just to cut through and respond (or react) more quickly, I wonder if there will be any appetite for building them back up again.

The people who design the processes will need to know whom they have and where they have skills and capabilities across the organisation or supply chain they can count on to deliver the new “operating model” they design.

The People people, will need to know what skills and capabilities they will need to find, develop and retain in order to enable the new post COVID operating models that come their way.

Maybe, just maybe, this is a chance to rebuild and re-think without the silos, without the barriers and with a common language and purpose.

People people and Process people working seamlessly to ideate, innovate and deliver a wholly new operating model fit for what comes next.

I hope so.