You may find a lot of literature, movements, research, think-tanks, you name it, about the working thing we have in our post-knowledge; post-industrial; pre-creative economy.
This is not news.
It has all been said and done before. It is too hard to change. Let’s just move on from this. There are bigger and more pressing things to take on than a bit of unrest in the workplace.
It seems that we’re not improving things in the right places and therefore the house of cards we’ve built as a modern society will never be stable unless we work on one fundamental thing: work – the thing we do throughout most of our life needs fixing. And the fix isn’t some smart consulting 2×2 or model; it isn’t JUST the purpose motive. It isn’t even only about leadership. It’s all about people.
We might want to blame business culture for some unpleasant feelings we have towards our employers. But let’s not fool ourselves. It’s all about people.
Maybe we blame an unfair employer, a bad boss. You may even find tons of research on why people leave organizations. Not due to the organization by itself, but due to a bad boss. And yes, that’s all about people.
We look at corporate scandals and are surprised at the loss of value of the brand. Again, that’s all about people as well.
We have mechanized, regularized, systematized everything we call work. In pursuit of becoming efficient, we’ve souled out the spirit of human endeavour. Sure we have made progress in all sorts of ways by eliminating diseases and everything else. But STILL, that is all about people.
Work is here to serve people. To help people. To support people. Even so, somehow it has become something which has, in many ways, forgotten about people.
The very people who establish an incredible enterprise, give people joy through their common work towards goals, can get a bit tempted by money, sell up and the company, then, becomes a worse version of its former self.
The same people who join a company with high hopes can experience harmful behaviours and attitudes and though they swear they’ll be different, just inculcate the whole thing because that’s how you survive around here.
And press repeat but with bean bags and free fruit.
It’s all about people, which is also what the event in Bournemouth is all about, on 8 and 9 June called All About People. This is a call to arms: to re-humanize work and make it truly all about people. Not money, not monuments, not fame; all about people.
Written by Perry Timms.
Originally posted on allaboutpeople.co
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Perry Timms is Founder of PTHR and the iPractice, Social Media Adviser to the CIPD, Visiting Fellow at Sheffield Hallam Business School, Fellow of the RSA, Chief Connector at WorldBlu, Futurist on the IBM Future of Work Programme and TEDx Speaker on The Future of Work.
Perry will be joining the All About People event and will be Chairing their Organizations and People Roundtable Conversation, with an expert panel of guests.