Human-Centric Transformation: Gift or Guff?

As transformation professionals you're always being pushed to follow a new trend, adopt an amazing model or utilise a brilliant discovery that says it will improve the way you run programmes and deliver change. But how many really work or are that different when you look closely?

Follow us for our Tackling Transformation series exploring concepts, sharing free resources and giving an honest down to earth view that cuts through the hype. Be in the know as to what's hot and what's hogwash as we explore in this edition the theme of Human-Centric Transformation.

Context

In the world of traditional transformation programme delivery, the currency of success has always been pegged to the effective management of risks, results and returns. How we actually get these elusive value creating outcomes everyone so desperately wants is a bit of a secondary consideration – despite what gets said in the annual report of course.

The well-being of employees, as an example, is one of those erstwhile topics that’s top of the list for being pushed down the running order of the programme monthly offsite. It usually nestles on the afternoon of the last day between a review of designs for a hastily reconfigured project collaboration space in the basement (in a blatant last ditch attempt to get the team to come back to the office) and the decision on which global city should be selected to host the next programme
leadership shindig.

Sadly, it sometimes doesn’t even make the day at all. This laissez-faire approach to the needs of people on programmes may have worked in the past, but times are changing, thinking is shifting and so too are the expectations of employees.

Buzzword: Human-centric transformation

In the ever-evolving lexicon of business jargon, a new buzzword (well, three to be precise) has emerged: human-centric transformation. If you read the label on the cover of the new shiny models that accompany this concept, then you’ll quickly discover that it promises to revolutionize the way transformation programmes are run. And wait for it... yes it does this by putting people at the heart of everything. If I can keep you from huffing for a moment before concluding that this is just another topic that management consultants are going to flog to death in the name of thought leadership, I’ll set out a simple way to decide if this is a genuine revolution or just another passing fad. Let's dive into the debate and explore if there’s anything to this human-centric transformation rhetoric.

What is it?

Firstly then, what exactly is it? Human-centric transformation, so the experts say, is a paradigm shift that recognizes the importance of employee well-being, involvement, collaboration, personal growth, and empowerment during transformation programmes. Let’s pick through the bones of this in a bit more detail to see what’s what.

Gift or Guff?

Gift

• Structuring programme around the science of human factors - Request a copy of our guide to Human-Centric Transformation
• Recognising importance of team cognition and neurodiversity
• Augmenting human and AI intelligence to tackle complexity, conflicts, and capability issues in the flow of work.
• Linking the way the programme operates to the probability of being successful.

Guff

• Stating that it is all about involving people in the change. Surely this is now a given as we hurtle towards being a quarter of the way through the 21st Century.
• Empowering people to make decisions – Yes of course, but this is a pipe-dream for all but the most halocracy believing businesses.
• Prioritising resilience of people in the team and on the front-line of the changes. How is this not a Gift I hear you shout, well in truth it is, but it makes the Guff side of the equation because the way it is lazily presented as being about stress balls and burnout prevention classes instead of being about managing workloads, prioritising focus time, democratising knowledge, investing in leadership capability, improving collaboration, removing programme waste, maintaining appropriate levels of team capacity, fostering psychological safety and having a say over priorities.

Reality of the outcomes

So, on to the consideration as to whether it actually drives better outcomes. Does it do what it says it does on the tin?

Gift

• There’s a real intellectual willingness to link human factors in transformation to value outcomes which given the vast amount of time the working population gives to projects of one sort or another and the amount businesses spend has to be a great thing.

Guff

• There’s a link between this approach and transformation success - Everything, as all too often when it comes to people and value, is either largely subjective or based on some 9th grade percentage calculation linking a survey score to a financial business outcome. Dangerous!
• People sometimes get great transformation outcomes without specifically embracing this new human-centric transformation doctrine. 
• There’s no allowance for just how difficult it is to practically embrace this concept in the real world. It requires a transformation in transformation capability and as needed as that is there’s not much traction for Boards to throw money at new methodologies when the money can go on a roll out of generative AI in the customer service centres.

Is it easy to use

And then there is the aspect of how easy human-centric transformation is to embrace. Can I read an Ikea style set of instructions or is it some abstract philosophy that will be a journey in lifelong learning?

Gift

• There’s nothing to say here as all elements are weak

Guff

• A few ‘cost an arm and a leg’ MBA style courses if you fancy a year off work and going back to school.
• A few expensive mini-programmes out there with a whiff of academic rigour but predominantly a clandestine sales technique from big 4 Partners who jump out from behind the cloak of educational respectability and tell you they can be your transformation partner.
• 
  No definitive standards or accreditation for whether your
  programme has got anywhere near being human-centric
  or missed it again by a country mile.

Is your programme moving in the right direction?

NB: on this last point there’s a framework and simple assessment we’ve cobbled together to try and help shine a light on whether a programme is moving in the right direction or stuck in the dark ages which you’re welcome to try in the absence of there being much other practical free tools out there on this concept. Contact us to try it out.

Conclusion & Recommendations

So, in conclusion then what’s the verdict on this humancentric transformation thinking? Well, it has the potential to be amazing but in the race for simplicity in the name of sales messaging it is being reduced to tired and hackneyed concepts that are so motherhood and apple pie that even Mr Kipling would think twice before swallowing it.

Our recommendation is - take a good look, pick out the elements that resonate, and tell yourself that if you’re not constantly improving the way you transform then you aren’t going to survive in the long-run. However, don’t fall into the trap, or rather believe that just because you’re engaging people in change, you’re a master of human-centric transformation. Reality is you’re probably not even scratching the surface of this evolving concept.