It is still all about the people.
Not only are people’s lives important but the fact that the world is so interconnected means the work people do in far off places affects your lives on a day to day basis.
With numerous lockdowns affecting millions of people there is a massive focus on well-being in the organisation. A phenomenon that is being talked is the great resignation as change in working practices and environments has given rise to people re-evaluating what they want from their careers and how they want to do their work. The 9-5 workday is going if not gone! It is clear that organisations need to adapt and enable work to be done in new ways and with a different model of how they use their key resource, people.
Another Maori proverb that is more important today:
Whiria te tangata
Weave the people together
People are a great source of capability for an organisation. The magic however is being able to weave people together to produce good things for the organisation they are part of. People have the ability to use their creative minds to solve many problems. Any organisation who is not able to assess in some form how well they are “weaving” their people is probably not going to be around in the future. A recent conversation with a board member of a NZ telecoms organisation said to me recently, “if your company is not assessing the pulse rate of creative ideas from your people and teams and is unable to effectively bring that value as visible data to the board table, then you have an issue looming in the future.”
A recent linkedin in post caught my eye when it said, “When your most passionate employees become quiet, it’s a signal that something is out of alignment”. This is a continuous challenge for organisations.
Creating an environment that allows employees to flourish, maintaining it so they don’t get disillusioned by lack of feedback and progress and managing the likely tsunami flow of initial ideas when you embark on a people centric view are critical.
Another Maori proverb to adopt in our thinking:
Poipoia te kākano kia puawai.
Nourish the seed and it will blossom.
Probably my favourite whakatauki. I think this says it all when you want your individuals, teams and organisations to do well. Nourishment in the form of purpose, regular engagement and active listening, recognised by feedback and action status, celebrations of success and learnings from failure.
So what are we trying to do here at DTL to help organisations engage people. We are creating software tools and providing key skills to enable organisations to be great weavers of people. An example our The Idea Hopper. It enables companies to take a pulse by showing the value generated by ideas coming from “people weaving” in the organisation so that leaders can assess what nourishment is needed in what areas to ensure that the “blossom” is a Korowhitawhita – continuously flowing. It shows the status of ideas in a visual way and allows collaborative engagement on ideas right across an organisation.
We want to help organisations create their visible pathway to business improvement using their people.
To finish I believe DTL is using it’s capabilities to help organisations deliver this Maori proverb:-
Hapaitia te ara tika pumau ai te rangatiratanga mo nga uri whakatipu
Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations
People are the lifeblood of the organisation. Being experts in people weaving is excellent, even better when you know where you need to nourish those people and what blossoms are being generated.