Human resource is a term that has lost its impact after seeing it being used in a way that many a times is quite literally is inhuman or at least non-human. I don’t mean to say that the use of HR term is cruel in the typical sense of “inhuman” but many a times individuals are treated by companies and HR processes in a way that it literally takes out the “humanness” from the human.
People are defined mainly around their skills – so often in IT we will hear terms like “we need to add a .NET resource on the team” – seldom do we hear “human qualities” and motivations being considered when dealing with people. So are all .NET (or Java etc.) resources created equal or work equally effectively? We in the software world are so used to looking at technical skills that we almost completely neglect the human qualities needed for success and value creation. We also forget that we get the best results when the work done by the person is aligned to the best expression of self.
Understand the human
If you are concerned with growing your organization or creating a brand using talented people and innovation, it is mandatory that you understand the importance of humanness in how you define your company and also how you hire, assign and treat people. In this knowledge era “humanness” is really pretty much the only competitive advantage there is and technology, infrastructure, and other resources are hardly an entry barrier for competitor or an exit barrier for customers.
Furthermore, your products and service are only going to be desirable and give your brand an advantage only if they endear to your customers – all humans with increasing sensitivity to their humanness.
So to have better output from the team understand their best qualities and to get the best products out there get to understand your customers’ humanness.
Personal Wins
Each one of us is seeking some personal wins – even it is as simple as securing our financial future or the pride we feel when we achieve something good. So when working on a project or assignment it is important that we understand each other’s personal wins and create alignment between the overall goal and the personal wins of team members.
Overall whether we are in project management or HR – we need to understand that best results only come from building a connection with human qualities – whether it is our customers or employees – humanness is what wins.
