Unlocking the challenge of being BOTH more productive AND more human centric
I am going to aim "Phrase Flipping" at one phrase that has me particularly intrigued because of its application to change, leadership, and organizations in general. The focus phrase is:
BOTH more productive AND more human centric.
Where did the phrase come from?
I know where I was when I heard the inspiration to the phrase; a memorable moment since the phrase so elegantly encapsulated much of my work in change management as well as my extracurricular interest in the movement to bring humanity back into the workplace. I was driving my car, listening to Tim Ferriss interview Jim Collins . Although he rarely makes appearances, I found myself mesmerized by Collins’ perspective and approaches. During a fairly small segment, Collins is reminiscing about the lessons he learned from one of his mentors, the great Peter Drucker. Collins describes Drucker’s big life question as, “How can organizations and society become both more humane and more productive?” While I am a quite accomplished Internet searcher, I have yet to find the question directly attributed to Peter Drucker. But the framework was established.
What connection does it make?
The tension is what interests me. It is very easy to come up with ideas to become more productive but less human centric. And it is equally easy to come up with ideas to become more human centric but less productive. It feels like the two are at odds. Or we find organizational focus swinging from one to the other; a big campaign focused on improving productivity where we lose connection with our people, followed by an over correction that emphasizes our people at the expense of performance. In many cases, we end up simply compromising and arriving at a sub-optimal solution that could have been both more productive and more human centric.?
But, what if it is not a 0 sum game where we must trade one for the other? What if we approach our problems, opportunities, projects, and organizations with a lens that helps us optimize both productivity and human centricity? I think it is possible, and I think it's what we've been doing in the discipline of change management for over 20 years.?
Is change management a more productive way to implement change in an organization? Absolutely! The data is abundantly clear that we create more return on investment and minimize excessive cost when we prepare, equip, and support, our people through the changes they experience. Is change management a more human-centric way to implement change in an organization? Absolutely! It provides people with the answers they need to the questions they have when they have them, and uniquely supports them as an individual through any barriers to achieve their own personal success. I have often thanked practitioners on three dimensions: on behalf of their projects which will be more successful, on behalf of their organizations which are growing crucial change muscle, but ultimately on behalf of the people that make up their organization who will experience a better change journey. For over a decade I have cited Andy, Becky, Charlie, and Debbie - the people who bring the change to life, and the people who we support with change management. Even my base beat that I arrived at in 2021 rings of more productive and more human centric: Change is hard. Change is continuous. Change success is accessible, with and through our people.
BOTH more productive AND more human centric - it describes what has been at the core of our approach to change management for several decade. But, the more I've explored it - especially in the midst of conditions and settings today - the more merit and applicability I think it might have.
Where are we going?
I don't think the value of both more productive and more human centric begins and ends with change management. Change management is a particular (and interesting) manifestation of the opportunity and goal we have to deliver better outcomes, for both the organization and the people that make it up.
领英推荐
To me, both more productive and more human centric is a description of what I see going on in front of me already. I would like to figure out how to package it and bring it forward in a way that equips senior leaders to guide their organizations differently, and change practitioners to deliver more successful change outcomes.
Are you interested in joining me? The first step will be an exploratory webinar on Aug 19th at 11:00 AM US Eastern Time (UTC -4). I am extending this special invitation to those curious and generous change practitioners and business leaders who would like to share their time, insights, and expertise to help me advance the thinking.
You are invited to an exploratory webinar:
Tim Creasey | Chief Innovation Officer | Prosci
@timcreasey | https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/timcreasey
Tim Creasey is a dynamic presenter, researcher, and thought leader on managing the people side of projects and initiatives to deliver organizational results. His work forms the foundation of the largest body of knowledge in the world on change management. Through conference keynotes, presentations, webinars, and articles, he advances the discipline of change management by moving it out of the “soft and fuzzy” realm toward a structured, rigorous approach for driving benefit realization and value creation. Tim coauthored the book Change Management: The People Side of Change and has led Prosci’s research for over two decades. Tim has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, enabling audiences with valuable data and actionable insights.
?
Please help me extend the impact of these phrases and my own "why" of helping make the challenges of change unlockable by:
Full-Stack Change Leader - people, process and technology - project by project | Fractional Executive | Interim | Mentor | Coach
2 年There's a big difference between human centric and relationship centric. Most regard the two as synonymous but they aren't and therein lies the rub.
Leading business improvement and helping organisations navigate change
2 年I've always thought that good change management is human-centric by its nature. If we are rolling out change based-off the needs of the user, from their input (co-design/co-creation) that's where change management has to be human-centric. By co-creating the approach of how we will do things, with the people that will experience the change (communication, training, support etc.), people will understand the what and why, be best-equipped to support and act in the change, and therefore the experience will by default be more productive. We catch the gotchas ahead of time and resolve/mitigate potential resistence before it would occur, which is super productive!
Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci
2 年Time will tell if this will be an example of the pendulum simply swinging from more human centric toward more productive, or if a concerted effort to create BOTH more productive AND more human-centric outcomes can delivery breakthrough change.?https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/07/31/google-ceo-to-employees-productivity-and-focus-must-improve.html
Organizational Change Leadership | Change Management | Coach | Educator | Futurist | Tech & AI in Process | Revitalizing Creativity | Transforming possibility into value
2 年We've tried to be more productive without being more Human-Centric and the result is a disconnect push to "get metrics up" without the human-neccessary groundwork to sustain the change. Doesn't work in isolation so I say: Heck Ya! Gotta balance both or we end up with less to potentially none.
Change Management | Prosci Change Practitioner
2 年A really intresting subject, I personally had many tough times to explain this aspect of CM to professionals (business owners, divisions managers), I am really glad that you will be talking about it in the next webinar and I'm sure it would be of a great help as usual ! Thanx Tim !