What’s missing ...

It has been pointed out by Sir Ken Robinson that our schools and Universities almost wholly educate and train in mechanistic ways of understanding the world. This has served us well. Even so, managers can be technically excellent but not respected, leaders often don't inspire, and Human Resource Management can even be ridiculed.

So what's missing ? Formal education does not deal with humanistic ways of understanding, that is to manage trust, self-belief, making meaning, self-esteem, positive attitudes, different viewpoints, inspiration, authenticity, intuition, relating to others and much more. Despite these being central to the success of management activity.

At the space between we have a concept called the humanistic turn — a turn toward humanistic understanding of the organisation. It cannot be taught as a skill. It is instead, learning a different understanding of management.

It’s easiest to explain with examples ...

Take down-sizing. Management can do the mechanistic things well (training for interviews, CV writing, job hunting, interview technique). How much better if management can take a humanistic turn and also deal with trust between management, unions and staff; deal with the self-esteem of managers having to fire their staff; with survivors feeling guilt; and the bitterness felt by those having to leave. This work can ensure productivity stays high, staff stay until their last day, the ending is free of bitterness and even the press can report a positive end, despite all the problems (this is from a real example in an international company). If management deal with these humanistic factors, there is no need for support agencies to 'mop up' after them. the space between  are collaborating with the exceptional Scandinavian company PMI-International who have great experience in this way of working. Details of this approach to downsizing is here.

Take the widespread process of 360º appraisal (or more politically ‘feedback’). Managers feel it should be useful, but so often it is a real disappointment. Despite training, good forms, rigorous admin, careful analysis and recommendations, something is missing. It just doesn’t work like it ought to. With a humanistic turn, responsibility is passed to where it belongs, the person. No need for an administrative juggernaut. The person can be guided on how to collect information on how they help, hinder or just miss ways of dealing with others; helped to make sense of other’s comments; helped to deal with differences of view; to accept what they are able to change in themselves; and to believe in ways they can improve their performance. We have clients whose "world has changed" (their words) after going through this process – and who now believe 360º is a most powerful way to improve performance.

Dealing with the humanistic turn can be learned on a fast track. There are several core techniques to support managers and Directors in understanding how they relate to others and to the outcomes of their action. These include:

• the use of reflection
• the use of facilitators and mentors
• ways to build trust
• dealing with other's projections
• and how to use real dialogue to understand others.

This humanistic turn, mastered and added to the mechanistic skills that have served so well until now, becomes more effective the more difficult the task is. And it changes the world.

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We are indebted to the work of Sir Ken Robinson in spreading his views on this subject