All organizations are made up of people. People are the Strategic Center of Gravity of organizations. Problems and solutions emanate from people. Looking at processes from an engineering point of view will never solve the root causes of problems, because those causes, one way or another, are always in the people.
Therefore, logic would indicate that to manage organizations and processes, people must be understood: their motivations, their values, their perspectives, their behaviors. Following this line of ideas, it seems coherent to conclude that anyone who aspires to direct organizations and processes, at any level, should have basic competencies in disciplines such as Psychology and Sociology, because they contain the scientific theories that describe and explain human behavior. The competences in Finance, Marketing, Law, Engineering, Logistics, Information Technology and others are of a technical-instrumental nature.
Leadership, Organizational Culture, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Climate, Change Management, Emotional Intelligence and Neurolinguistic Programming competencies are essential for the leaders of organizations, and yes !!!, you guessed it, they have their bases, directly or indirectly, in the Psychology and Sociology.
For all the above, I am of the opinion that the Curricula of the Diploma, Specialization, Master's and Doctorate programs in Management should reinforce and deepen the knowledge of Nature and Human Behavior, providing scientific knowledge and tools to understand the processes organizations, and thus be in a better position to make truly rational decisions.
Changes are not decreed, culture is not imposed. People are motivated and persuaded, and it is on that basis that Cultures of Quality, Safety, Social Solidarity, and moral values are built.
Management systems and models, for example ISO 9001 Quality, fail many times because they are perceived, conceived and treated only as process systems or as documentary systems, that is, lots and lots of manuals and procedures that few use, and worse still, they become an end in themselves.
Another very common situation is the mechanical and automatic application of procedures, without understanding the why and why of these procedures. Sometimes these situations are aggravated because some people pretend to interpret the texts literally, rigidly. In turn, this is often reinforced by ineffective advisers, consultants and auditors trying to build a power base within organizations. In my experience, the Root Cause of the problems described in this section is the absence of so-called common sense.
Management systems as human systems
This being the least common of the senses, how does Common Sense apply in Organizations and their Management Systems?
There are some answers, by way of simple logical principles that I present below:
- Management Systems standards and Excellence Models should be understood as models of good practices, not as strict rules, of "mandatory literal compliance. Each standard, clause, or good practice has a reason for being, an origin, a certain "common sense" logic. Most are lessons learned from mistakes and successes that help prevent problems, or on the contrary, help to obtain satisfactory results in a consistent way. Going back to the title of this article, organizations are made up of groups or teams of human beings, so the business approach must be primarily loaded with a strong understanding of the human.Therefore, Management Systems must be understood as Human Systems that manage processes to obtain the results established in the Organization's plans. It does not matter if it is a private or public organization, or a commercial company or a non-profit organization. This principle applies equally to everyone, but is frequently overlooked. The people who intervene in each process, both the Process Owners and the collaborators, must visualize the entire Process System, and identify and understand what position they are play (as in a sports team) and what is their contribution to the objectives and goals. To do this, they should understand what is the common sense logic of good practices that correspond to apply in their processes, and use them in the most effective way,simple and practical possible for them.
To conclude, both Senior Management and Process owners and the people involved in them should be aware of these principles. By applying them together with rational methods, they will begin to detect conceptual errors and waste, and will be in a better position to improve their activities, processes, systems, and by common sense, the performance of their organizations.
