People are more precious than machines

I had the pleasure of hearing Paul Herr speak today. His book Primal Management was published last month.

Paul’s focus is natural management. This is a management strategy that respects human nature and strives to align the workplace with the motivational survival-mechanism nature built into each of our brains.

I’d like to share with you one of Paul’s analogies - I found it quite powerful.

If you purchased a $5 million piece of equipment for your organization you would likely look after it. You would have dedicated technicians to watch over it, and you would have sensors in place to track and ensure it functioned within established parameters.

Do we do the same for human beings? No we do not!

And yet we should. A Brookings Institute study found that nearly 85% of a company’s assets are related to intangible capital tied up in knowledge and human talent. Our employees truly are our greatest asset and we are all quite willing to admit as much. But we need to go beyond the words. Why is this so difficult? I’d like to hear your thoughts.