Newsflash! Your People ARE Your Most Valuable Asset!
There’s a famous Dilbert cartoon where the pointy haired boss announces that following a survey he’s discovered that people aren’t his business’s most valuable asset. People come 3rd behind paperclips and carbon paper (yes, it’s an old Dilbert cartoon!).
While I doubt there are any businesses that still think about their people in that way, there is a distinct parallel which I think is very prevalent, and that is the way we manage people during business change projects.
The backdrop to this is that the need to remain competitive in the global market has led to a continuous drive to do more with less. In most businesses this means that more output is required from less people in less time. While technology has helped increase efficiency, there has also been an inevitable increase is the ‘ask’ being made of your team. This means that in the vast majority of cases, BAU is fully loading your team. When a change programme begins which requires significant additional effort, we expect our teams to ‘step up’, ‘go above and beyond’, or behave as ‘heroes’ for a prolonged period. While good people will always try to do their best for their company, going ‘above and beyond’ can only be done for a relatively short period. Prolonged overload leads to reduced quality, mistakes (which create rework), increased illness, increased stress, and ultimately increased churn.
The irony is that the expectation that teams can absorb additional load implies that there was spare capacity in the first place.
I’m not advocating running businesses as holiday camps. The reality is that people perform best under the right level of pressure, businesses have limited resources, and shareholders have expectations. However, the changing generational expectations in the workplace mean that traditional approaches to motivation will be less effective. This creates a scenario where leaders will struggle to get the best from their staff and won’t know why, creating extra tension between the business’ needs and the workforces expectations.
To address this, I think there’s a change needed to the way we approach major change. Considering the needs of our people, understanding how to effectively motivate them, and getting the fundamentals right will encourage teams to step up and perform at their best. This increases buy-in, protects the desired benefits, and reduces churn.
At Pragmatist Consulting we believe that getting this right is the key to successful change, and can help you achieve it.
Pragmatist Consulting provides a pragmatic, emotionally intelligent business and change consultancy service which is tailored to fit your need. We focus on helping you turn your business problem into a success story.
13 February 2020