People Are Problems

They’re not productive

They don’t take initiative

They can’t perform

They won’t challenge the norm

They’re not having fun

I don’t come to work to have fun

They refuse to be engaged

They’re too poorly managed

They’re not present

They’re too present

They really resent, that

They have too many e-mails, if

They didn’t have the e-mails, then

They could communicate

They don’t want to stagnate

They can’t collaborate

They just won’t innovate

They want to work flexibly

(Where the hell is everybody?!)

They don’t get the strategy

They don’t know “what’s in it for me?”

And did we mention the customer?

Oh.

We forgot about the customer.

That was what I took away from #CIPD15 last week. OK, it would have been a short conference if people were simple. But each person that I spoke to or listened to, added to this idea:

People are Problems

People are the most complex and fallible component of the organisational machine.

And they are irrational. At least customers are predictably irrational. But employees spend so long at work, there are so many assumptions about how we should work, and it all relies on human-human interaction. The predictability goes, the problems start.

But what I also heard a great deal of was:

People are Solutions

Talk to them. Get their feedback. Get their ideas. Try their ideas. Measure the effect of their ideas.

They’ll identify the problems in a heartbeat. Give them a few more and they usually have the solution too. It’ll help you help them simplify, to work through the problems, and get back to the customer.

[With special mention and thanks to Professor Cary Cooper, Glassdoor, Plum Consultancy, Brand Ethos, Octopus, Certus]