How to Build Human Centred Organisations

In order to build a human centred organisation, it is important to first understand what that means. A human centred organisation is one in which the employees’ needs are put first. This can be done by creating an environment in which the employees feel comfortable and safe to express themselves, and are given the opportunity to do so. You need to provide employees with the resources they need in order to be successful, both professionally and personally. Human centred development can help to improve employee productivity and satisfaction, as well as reducing staff turnover. An effective leader must be willing to listen and learn from their employees in order to create a truly human centred organisation.

Create Better Experiences for Employees and Clients

Creating better human experiences is about understanding people and their needs. It’s about designing products, services, and spaces with those needs in mind. It’s about being empathetic and taking the time to understand what makes people happy, what stresses them out, and what makes them feel fulfilled.

This is true both for how you interact with your team members and how they interact with one another as well as clients. Encourage your team to be empathetic towards customers and each other. Teach them the value in diverse perspectives and how to see things from other points of view. This will help them create better experiences for everyone they come into contact with.

It’s no secret that happy employees lead to happy customers. When employees feel valued and supported, they in turn are more likely to go above and beyond for the people they serve. Your leadership style and interactions with your employees should set the example for what is expected in how they communicate with one another and with clients. Creating a human centred organisation isn’t just good business strategy, it’s the right thing to do.

Encourage Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is a key ingredient in high performing teams. It is understanding that you won’t be punished for taking risks or making mistakes. It’s about feeling safe to be yourself, and it’s something that an effective leader knows needs to be cultivated.

Being able to create a psychologically safe environment is one of the most important leadership skills needed to be an effective leader. Individuals and teams must feel comfortable sharing their ideas, even if they’re not sure if they’re ‘right.’ It also means being open to hearing feedback, as well as giving it in a way that is constructive and helpful. By establishing these norms, leaders can encourage their team members to take risks and be themselves, which ultimately leads to better performance.

The best high performance team programs help leaders to establish psychological safety within their teams. They also provide teams with the communication skills and leadership training to hold space for one another, themselves. When team members have the capability to listen deeply and give feedback with intention, they create the conditions for psychological safety to naturally emerge. As a result, the well being of each individual will come before the task at hand, and the team will be able to achieve a human centred organisation.

To be an effective leader and build human centred organisations, you need to be able to understand and relate to people. You need to know what motivates them, what makes them tick, and how to efficiently manage and communicate with them. Learning to do so will have a positive effect on your leadership development as well as the career development of your team.

The key to all of this is understanding that your employees and clients are the most important asset to your business. As such, you need to build a work environment and culture that is conducive to their success. This is one of the most important leadership skills you can develop. Leadership training courses often focus on techniques and best practices for managing people but neglect to mention the importance of putting people first in leadership. When you have a human centred approach to your leadership style, it creates a positive knock-on effect throughout the organisation.

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and  high trust organisation.