Why thinking wrong can help you to get your HR right
/Let me set you a hypothetical challenge.
You have to make your business fail just by changing the way you do things. How would you go about it?
There are some obvious possibilities. Treating your customers badly, overspending on budgets, developing products or services for which there is little or no demand. All would certainly have a negative impact on your profitability and viability.
But if you want to be really certain of getting the job done, start with the people who work for you.
Businesses spend hours and hours in meetings, focus groups and workshops, trying to figure out how to achieve more. How to be better. How to be more profitable. How to increase productivity. How to be leaner. How to be more efficient.
But instead of spending time thinking how to do things right, it might actually be easier to think about how you would achieve the opposite of what you actually want.
It’s all about people
If you were to sit down and list all the ways in which you could damage your business, it wouldn’t be very long before you arrived at the conclusion that all of the activities, attitudes, and behaviours that fuel failure are linked to your people.
People are arguably the crucial ingredient in the failure or success of any business.
Whatever you do in your business – from how you greet people to the deals you close – affects people directly, and the way they’re affected shapes how they work, which in turn impacts either positively or negatively on your profits and success.
Let’s look at how that works and how thinking ‘wrong’ can help you to identify and implement good people practice
1. Innovation and creativity
The moment you make your first hire, you share responsibility with someone else for the generation of new ideas and creative solutions. As your business and headcount grows, more of your focus is diverted to strategic thinking and development, and it’s not long before all your innovation is down to your people.
Your innovators and creators bring fresh perspectives to the table. They can identify market opportunities, find new ways to improve existing products, and contribute to the development of new ones.
Different backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets can lead to more robust and innovative products or services.
What to look for when you begin thinking wrong: Focus on what you might do to stifle innovation and creativity and then work out if there’s evidence of that in your existing set-up. Is your corporate culture too controlling? Do you fail to reward or recognise the innovators in your team? Is there a blame or fear culture in key areas? Is your emphasis on learning and development inadequate?
2. Customer service
Unless you’re doing your business’ selling yourself, your sales and marketing teams are the people you expect to deliver excellent customer service, which is essential for the success of any business.
Employees who are trained and motivated to provide exceptional customer service can create positive experiences which lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
What to look for when you begin thinking wrong: Focus on what you would need to do to ensure it was impossible for people to give excellent service and then apply those tests to your customers and the feedback you get. Do your teams have poor knowledge or understanding of your product or service benefits? Have you restricted the information they have about your customers? Have you failed to invest in technology solutions that will support good customer experiences?
3. Management process
Successful businesses rely on strong relationships with their suppliers and partners to ensure a steady supply of high-quality materials and services. By building trust and open communication channels with these stakeholders, businesses can foster long-term partnerships that can lead to mutual benefits and sustainable growth.
What to look for when you begin thinking wrong: Focus on how you could empower your people to damage your supplier and stakeholder relationships. Do you have long payment terms? Are you out of contact with your suppliers for extended periods? Is your technology incompatible with those suppliers and stakeholders?
4. Productivity
Positive work culture promotes teamwork, collaboration, while open communication can increase employee morale, engagement, and retention.
When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to be productive, innovative, and loyal to the company. Additionally, a productive workforce that is focused on achieving common goals can help a business meet its targets and improve its bottom line.
What to look for when you begin thinking wrong: Focus on how your workplace makes it difficult for your people to feel valued, engaged, and positive about their role and contribution. Obvious areas to look at here are outdated or slow IT systems, low remuneration and benefits policies, inadequate communication, etc.
5. Risk mitigation
Risks are inherent in your business and enabling your people to manage them effectively is critical for its survival and success.
Employees who are trained and empowered to identify and report risks can help the company mitigate them before they become major issues.
What to look for when you begin thinking wrong: Focus on risk awareness and how your business would hinder risk identification and the knowledge and skills to deal with it. Areas to examine might include learning and development, risk assessment, poor knowledge of your business operations, etc.
In the end, people are the key to your success. They are the driving force behind innovation, customer service, supplier relationships, work culture, and risk management.
To achieve success, businesses need to invest in their people, provide them with the necessary resources and training, and create a positive work environment that promotes engagement, collaboration, and innovation.
To work out whether you’ve got that right, you need to work out what doing it the wrong way looks like.
If you’d like to find out more about how Constantia Consulting can help you to implement wrong thinking in an impactful way, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
