Humans as Resources
In this blog post, I talk about why context matters, in building organizational strategy and why we need a revolution in the ways we think about how organizations work, how human resource departments fit in to that work.
Natural Capital in Organizations
In a recent article in Scientific American, they talk about the idea of “natural capital, or the idea that ecosystem services should be valued in a similar manner as any form of wealth.” It got me thinking about how in a lot of ways we are in a moment in time where we all have some awareness of the kinds of capital that are at play in organizations on a regular basis.
There’s emotional labor or the idea that you have to mask your feelings in different ways at work or the idea of shouldering the burden of other folks’ feelings by being compassionate
Or the idea that domestic labor (someone at home) is essential for the workplace to thrive or that having a child or being pregnant at work somehow set you back in your career.
These are a couple of examples of how folks can bring particular capital with them to work in the same way that certain resources were once seen as “abundant and endlessly renewable” but in actuality that assumption “turned out to be very wrong.” This is very similar to the argument by the folks in Scientific American.
In the case of the resources that we bring to the office, and particularly those that are hidden for various reasons, these resources aren’t disappearing, necessarily, but they are often the considerable obstacles that successful business strategy faces.
Yes, an argument can be made that these are gendered issues, or issues that deal with inclusivity. That is one way to look at some of the undervalued resources of the workplace.
AND what if we started to be open to the idea that there are more factors at play in the workplace than we account for, in our daily practices as well as our business strategy.
I believe that when we do that, when we start to be honest with ourselves organizationally, as leaders, as employees of the resources that are at play in the workplace, we will be exponentially more successful.
Human Capital = Human Resources
One of the major barriers in adopting this kind of, ahem, human resources, strategy at work is that we want to make these resources fit into a box … a human resources department box. Somehow the belief that if human resources exists as a department, they somehow have it handled. Which is not to say that they don’t. It’s that we have relegated their impact to the HR portion of the org chart, when in actuality the resources that are human (that are hidden) are infused into the fabric of the organization.
So similarly, in the same way that the folks at Scientific American talk about “Markets have always valued timber as a commodity, for example, but not the services that came along with producing it, such as soil maintenance, carbon storage, erosion control and nutrient cycling.” We have always valued humans in organizations (and I think this is often why this kind of conversation often falls flat). It’s that we haven’t valued the human equivalents of soil maintenance, erosion control and nutrient cycling. While I am nowhere near knowledgeable about any of these things, here is what I make up as some humans as resources equivalents
Soil maintenance - Manager and employee relationships that are nurturing and human-centered
Erosion control - Time off - not just taking it, but an organizational supports and encourages it
Nutrient Cycling - Learning opportunities that are integrated into regular work as well as the organization’s performance review process
How to Replenish our (Human) Resources
Underlying all of this is really the idea of how do we make the workplace a less exploitative place for the humans that work in them. How we can replenish the resources that we use up in the workplace as much as we use them.
Some things that I notice that I need to replenish after I work
My focus and ability to concentrate
My ability to locate my keys and wallet
My ability to be uncomfortable - (for example listening to my son talk about some random video game ad nauseum for more than 5 minutes as well as my ability to look at my monthly budget and notice more money is going out than coming in)
My ability to take care of myself (sometimes I will sit at my desk for over an hour, knowing that I have nothing left in my brain, but cant let go of the idea of being productive)
One of my favorite questions to include in an employee survey is what percentage of yourself do you have to bring to work on average on a given day. It sucks to recognize the answer isnt 100%.
I think the best place to start is to recognize that the list that I made (which is just my list) is not something that we have to compartmentalize as something to deal with “at home.” Yes, maybe thats what we created time off for, but let’s face it, in America, we just dont take the time off that we need. Bottomline.
Some things that we can do in the office:
Recognize that folks need to take more time off but dont make that an issue for each individual to only work through on their own.
Normalize conversations about how things will be there when you get back,
acknowledge that its messy and uncomfortable and hold the paradox that it would be nice to get more things done but they cant and folks still stay nourished.
Quote
The concept of “natural capital,” or the idea that ecosystem services should be valued in a similar manner as any form of wealth, dates back to the 1970s. Markets have always valued timber as a commodity, for example, but not the services that came along with producing it, such as soil maintenance, carbon storage, erosion control and nutrient cycling. We didn't need a market for resources that industrialists saw as abundant and endlessly renewable. This exploitative assumption turned out to be very wrong. Failing to measure the benefits of ecosystem services in policy and management decisions is a major reason many of those ecosystems disappeared.
