I have spent over 20 years working within organisations to understand people and how they interact, and to apply this understanding to support more productive, and ultimately more fulfilling, workplaces. I describe myself on business and professional networks as a Change Agent, HR Leader, Occupational Psychologist, Facilitator, Coach and Organisation Development Consultant. I’m all of these things, but above all else, I’m a human who is interested in other humans. I derive my personal meaning from seeking to create meaning at work for others. I’ve worked in a wide range of industries and organisations and I’ve worn multiple hats as a researcher, HR practitioner, Chartered Psychologist and Consultant. Through this experience, I’ve observed that work just isn’t working for many of us. People are often treated as a resource akin to a box of paperclips; shifting them around, using terms such as ‘capital’ or ‘headcount’, and ‘managing them out’ when they’re no longer deemed to be productive. This book is my response to this work context. I believe there is a huge opportunity to work together to bring greater humanity into the workplace, and that both organisations and people will benefit.
I founded HeartSparks, an Organisation Development (OD) consultancy, with the purpose of sparking change in how we treat people at work. Quick fixes in recognition schemes or reward structures just aren’t going to cut it any longer. We need to support holistic, sustainable change in our workplace; change that offers the opportunity to create cultures that treat people as individuals with individual needs, motivations and desires. I’m proposing that we can learn so much from the world of behavioural science and from Organisation Development when considering such a lofty aim to bring greater humanity into the workplace. We carry sizeable influence within HR, and a good starting point for creating a person-centred shift in our organisations would be to create this same shift in how we operate as a function. This book is a first step for all HR professionals to start building HR teams that will put the human back into Human Resources. As Gandhi (sort of) said, let’s ‘be the change we want to see in the world’.
Why am I the right person to write this book? In all honesty, as I write this, I’m knee-deep in imposter syndrome and thinking perhaps I’m not the right person at all. But no one else has written it, and I think it needs to be read. Or rather, it needs to be read, and the concepts within need to explored and talked about and acted on through every organisation that employs people. Rest assured that I have the technical expertise to speak sensibly on this topic, from leading employee engagement, talent development, OD and change leadership within major brands and government departments and spending 20 years studying or learning more as an Occupational Psychologist. And rest assured my sense of humility made me feel slightly nauseous as I just wrote that sentence. But more importantly, this topic is central to who I am, to my values and to how I operate. We’ll explore the concept of ‘self as an instrument’ in OD within the book, but this is me using myself as an instrument or tool to guide our collective practice as HR professionals. I don’t think you can truly lead and create cultural change if you don’t seek to embody your vision through all you say and do. I seek to be compassionate and to bring ‘heart’ to my OD and HR practice, which I think puts me in a strong position to be at the very least your ‘guide’ in creating person-centred cultures, if not perhaps your ‘guru’.
You can find out more about me and my work here: www.heartsparks.co.uk
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank so many of the amazing people I’ve worked with who have inspired me to write this book. From the Director of Organisation Development & People at Save the Children, Leonie Lonton, who perhaps never knew what an inspiration she was to me as my line manager during my time there. Leonie inspired me so greatly in her sheer drive to improve the lives of children, and in her ability to do so whilst always being such a genuinely kind person. And to the wonderful Pat Johnson, certainly one of the very finest colleagues and OD professionals I have worked with. Pat, you taught me so much about OD; from applying it in practice, to continuously working to develop ‘myself as an instrument’. My career aspiration continues to be to work with you again, and I feel so lucky to call you a dear friend.
I also want to thank my lovely friends and family who have supported me this year, personally and professionally. I’m blessed to have known many of my friends for nearly 30 years, and they have spurred me on to write the book that follows.
I would also like to thank all the amazing people at Practical Inspiration Publishing for supporting and, at times, cajoling me toward this finished book. And most of all, to Alison Jones of Practical Inspiration Publishing. You made me realise that writing a book could be more than a dream.
This book is dedicated to all the hidden voices in organisations; the people who are quietened, aren’t given the support to reach their potential or aren’t treated with the dignity and compassion they deserve. There really is another way.
And finally, this book is also dedicated to my little people, Martha and Sebastian. There are times that I haven’t been with you so that I could write this book. It is my small contribution to a world of work where one day I hope you’ll both be valued for being the uniquely, crazily special people that you are. I hope that one day you will find work that makes your heart and head sing too.
And so the book will open with a quote from Martha’s favourite story, for some of the best leadership and business lessons are to be found in stories:
Have courage and be kind.
[Cinderella, from the film, 2015]
Introduction
Who took the human out of Human Resources?
When did HR professionals decide that the key route to credibility was to be ‘business-focused’ and to follow a mantra where profits are placed above people? Why have so many leaders and HR professionals alike spent so long on business cases, ignoring the need for a ‘person case’? The reality is that so few people-focused issues or opportunities can be reduced to a set of tangible ‘results’ outlined on a spreadsheet. Regardless of whether there is a strong scientific or financial argument for doing something, we might still take a course of action from the moral standpoint that it is the right thing to do.
We are living longer than ever in the Western world and will be working for more years than past generations as a result. The world of work and the jobs available to people have both changed wildly with the advent of the internet, and we’re fast adapting to new ways of working in HR. Research from psychologists such as Barry Schwartz1 suggests that people are seeking meaning from their work and careers, and that experiencing this meaning is one of the most important factors for job satisfaction. How people create meaning will depend, amongst other factors, on their motivations and personal context, but having a level of autonomy and an opportunity to develop and grow will support them in achieving meaning through their work. The informal environment at work has always played a large part in employee motivation and performance – what was once coined people’s need for ‘affiliation’. What I sometimes marvel at is how often these very basic motivation theories from decades ago are ignored, or at best re-hashed into the latest HR intervention.
We have known for decades that people aren’t motivated by money, we know that people perform best in cohesive groups with shared goals, and that performance will depend on an individual’s skills and motivation, balanced with the opportunity and support provided by the job role. However, we continue to offer pay as a reward, we monitor and control performance and we put people in work environments where they can barely survive, let alone thrive. The alternative would require a complete overhaul of practices, of doing things differently in HR, and seeking actual evidence for why we might embed a particular norm or practice in the organisation. For example, research by
