Hallelujah! A Step Forward at Last!

Something worth sharing from my good friend Verne Harnish’s blog: People are the #1 Challenge -- surveying audiences around the globe, including the 500 CEOs and executives attending the October 2012 Fortune Growth Summit, "people" challenges are by far the #1 decision in 2012 needing focus vs. strategy, execution, and cash. This is a change from 2011 when the #1 focus was on strategy, especially with firms in the developed world. I am glad to read this report as I have been saying this for years.  Nothing is accomplished without behavior and you can’t have behavior without people.  Executives often say this but fail to understand that behavior is lawful and you can’t get the most out of this “asset” without learning and applying those laws to every aspect of a business.

I have no argument against hiring the best people you can attract and secure but I must say that putting “the best people” in an organization where systems processes and management behaviors are inconsistent with what is known about the laws of behavior is never optimal and will not bring out the best in people – even the best people. What brings out the most in people depends not on who you hire but what you do to them after they have been hired. Surprisingly to many executives, using the laws of behavior to maximize the productivity, quality and cost of a business favors the employee.  As Sherman Roberts of the Ivy Consortium says, “The best way to treat people is also the best way to run an organization.”