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Human Dignity Is The Anchor Of Personalization

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This is a collection of additional insights from industry leaders to Part 1 of an eight-part series featuring conversations from the Leadership in the Age of Personalization Summit.

Human dignity must serve as the foundation for the ways we think, act and innovate in this age of personalization. We can’t elevate the capacity of individuals without first building trust, and we can’t build trust without first honoring the dignity of the person before us. And we can’t do any of that as long as we remain trapped by standards that commoditize people rather than building systems for honoring people as individuals.

In our age of personalization, we want to invigorate our shared mission by elevating individual contribution. So I have invited leaders across industries to expand the conversation beyond the summit itself by providing additional reflections throughout this series of articles.

Here are a series of insights from industry leaders:

Gustavo Canton, VP People Analytics, Schneider Electric

Dr. Alvarnas’ question is compelling: “How do we reinvent what we do in ways that bring greater sustainability, personalization, human-centeredness, and do so in a way that brings us along this next arc of discovery?”

Leading the People Analytics function for a global energy management company with 137,000+ employees working across 100+ countries is about leading at scale. Such scale gives me the opportunity to learn valuable insights from a very diverse population.

A recent analysis allowed Schneider Electric to identify key drivers of engagement and, to my surprise, wellbeing surfaced at the top. I guess it makes sense! Unfortunately, let’s face it, wellbeing-related KPIs are not among the most prominent in executive scorecards. It’s time for a change.

Once we know the importance of wellbeing, now we need to go beyond that label to really understand it and study it. “Wellbeing” is a standardized label embedded into the system by vendors. But how is wellbeing defined by individuals and by the organization – and how is that definition informed by outside experts like doctors and others?  

Just to provide perspective, a 2018 study shows air pollution can have a greater effect on human gene expression than ancestry. That’s why companies are investing in workplace environments and health-centered policies. Johnson & Johnson, which has one of the longest-running wellbeing programs in the United States, found an ROI of $1.88 to $3.92 saved for every dollar spent.

I don’t know with complete certainty what the future holds but I’m confident that People Analytics and a human-centered mindset should be our guiding compass.

Glenn Llopis:

The corporate playbook refers to one’s whole self as the ability to bring your most authentic self to work. This is too vague and incomplete. This is a standardization trap that makes personalization difficult to achieve. One’s whole self is about the totality of who they are as an individual beyond the diversity designations they associate themselves with. It’s about sharing their deepest vulnerabilities they are experiencing as humans. It’s knowing an individual’s state of mental, physical and emotional health and the stressors at work that lead to these states.  

One’s whole self is about allowing employees to let go of whatever standards and judgments hold them back from being themselves at full capacity. It’s about employers creating the space in today’s age of personalization to get to know their employees as individuals. When employers only see their people as employees, they have unknowingly pushed them into a box of defined roles and responsibilities and suppressed their human dignity. As such, their workforce becomes unhealthy, and we’ve been unhealthy for a long time. 

Serving human dignity goes beyond measuring the current standardized ways we see “wellbeing.”

Jim FitzPatrick, Director, UPS

People are and run the business. UPS founder, Jim Casey, believed “The thing to do is find out what each person is really capable of doing as an individual and to deal with that person as an individual.”

I’ve incorporated this belief into large parts of my many roles working for this Fortune 50 company. It enabled me, as an individual, from time to time to exercise that truth and I had much success with it.

Throughout my decades of work, standardization came in many forms. Many were worth duplicating and as many stunted personal and business growth. What I learned as a best practice was to trust the human side of the equation.

What does that mean?

Well, if I faced a daunting challenge that needed a solid strategy and a new way, I would meet, listen and act on realistic, measurable and collaborative recommendations contributed by my team. I managed hundreds of engineering, sales, marketing, and operation professionals and the common denominator amongst them all, they were simply individuals. Individuals with their own specific strengths, interests and purpose, their own uniqueness. They all wanted to contribute their ideas and solutions. I was fortunate enough to listen very well, see it and then draw from it.

However, there were many standards that did not work and needed to be eliminated. But the unfortunate side of a huge company is to let go of something that’s worked for decades before and to then do something that’s different was near impossible.

That’s the challenge of today…hiring people who want to be heard and feel part of something they contributed to. 

Llopis:

Human dignity begins with respecting the individual’s unique needs. The age of standardization has been less about respect and more about recognition. We have a tendency to recognize a person’s good work first, and then respect who they are as an individual. No wonder people don’t feel valued.

Recognition explodes and subsides. Respect reverberates and multiples. The recognized person appeals to the head where things are easily forgotten. The respected person captivates the heart and the heart doesn’t forget. 

We are transitioning from a knowledge- to wisdom-based economy. It’s no longer just about what you know, but what you do with what you know. It’s about opening up your heart and treating others with dignity in today’s age of personalization.

Chris Corwin, Vice President, Executive BluePrint

I trained as a nurse early in my career, and practiced in the operating room in academic trauma centers. I’ve experienced what it is to have someone’s life in your hands. I understand the true value and gift of life.

The wonder of modern technology has had a real impact on the way we interact as humans and as those innovations continue, it seems we have forgotten the true interconnectivity we all share as humans. If we are going to have the opportunity to live longer, doesn’t it make sense we approach life from a long-term strategy, instead of chasing the short-term gains, which seems to land us in the “immediate satisfaction” area?

Llopis:

Without strategy, change is merely substitution not evolution.  Standardization is the act of practicing substitutional thinking and personalization is the act of practicing evolutionary thinking.

Corporate strategies were not designed to serve the mass variances in people. As a result, corporate strategies were not designed to solve for the real-time needs in the workplace and marketplace that were caused by these mass variances. People want more personalization at work, in the marketplace and in their daily lives. To serve the unique needs that come from mass variances in people requires corporations and their leaders to practice evolutionary thinking and limit substitutional thinking that forces a longer-term approach to growth and oftentimes slows progress down.

But it’s not all black and white, not all bad standardization and good personalization. We must find balance between the two them. Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing the extremes of personalization and standardization. They are fighting each other and for the sake of solving for human dignity, we must learn to let go of those part of standardization that fail us in today’s age of personalization.  

Kristin Gwinner, SVP/Chief Human Resources Officer, Chico’s FAS, Inc.

The story Dr. Scott Lacy shared of his experience in the village in West Africa was eye opening to me. As leaders we may think we know exactly what we are going to be teaching others, but sometimes the journey provides the greatest teaching. Openness to change our mindset to really understand one another can make a profound difference. Dr. Lacy’s openness to be present with his experience in the village led to an unexpected lesson on inclusive decision-making, which resulted in treating others like family, and led to a relationship of a lifetime.  

Dr. Nick Morgan’s chapters of change: 1) bewilderment, 2) exploration, 3) mentorship, 4) developed expertise of the hero, and 5) mastery – made me picture myself walking through his change story, pausing at each chapter and identifying with the feelings that are described. It’s such a unique and relatable way to share, allowing for the emotions to connect to the action that is required to lead change.

As leaders, we must live with a generous purpose. This allows us to share authentically, and express real-life stories of how each of us can begin the process of changing our mindset which in turn changes our behaviors, which gets us closer to understanding why we must embrace human dignity in the workplace.

“As leaders we may think we know exactly what we are going to be teaching others, but sometimes the journey provides the greatest teaching.”

Kristin Gwinner

Llopis:

Openness to change is hard.  It’s not just because people don’t want to change. People are losing faith in what the outcomes of change will bring after putting so much of themselves (i.e. time, energy, hope, etc.) into the change management process. People have become exhausted with the cycles of change because oftentimes the change leads to more disappointment and too much bewilderment.  

People want to know what all the change and transformation means to them and/or how it will tangibly benefit them, their colleagues, the culture, their clients, etc. When these things are unclear, people become skeptical and begin to lose trust with the employer and their leaders. People want more intimacy; they want the truth. And when this intimacy doesn’t exist, they begin to lose respect in the status quo, oftentimes because they feel forced to execute things, they don’t really believe in.

Rather than feeling they are just a widget in the change management process, they want to know how to best relate to the change and find ways to contribute and influence it. Openness to change requires leaders to respect one’s human dignity and create the conditions for intimacy and transparency that allows one’s individuality to flourish - for the betterment of a healthier whole. 

Human dignity is the anchor for personalization.

As you reflect on the need to build economies of scale around embracing human dignity, ask yourself, your team, and your organization the following questions:

  • Where do you see outdated standards in your industry and/or area of functional expertise now being influenced by personalization? What do you believe are the most evident areas of opportunity?
  • Why do organizations continuously find themselves stuck in the traps of standardization? Why are leaders having difficulty respecting the need to embrace today’s age of personalization? Why do you believe this is a vicious cycle? How can organizations and their leaders begin to find the right balance between standardization and personalization?

Be courageous enough to explore and address these questions.  As you do, you will begin to see things about human dignity that others don’t, do what others won’t and keep pushing when prudence says quit.




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