People-Projects-Profits

A couple of months back I was pondering our company's goal to grow and be more profitable. This is the goal of pretty much every business, I guess, and there's nothing wrong with it. And yet I wonder if we're missing something by focusing primarily on the money. During my pondering I penciled down an idea that motivates me and wonder if it would motivate others. It's simply:

 "People before projects before profits"

People

OK, so my main thought is that we should focus on people first.  There are two motivations for doing this with very different perspectives and so I think it covers a broad spectrum of experience:

1. People are the ones driving the projects to ultimately generate the profits.
2. People and human interactions are intrinsically more important than profits.

Item 1, is the business case for putting your employees, clients etc. as a primary focus so that you can drive up profits.  Southwest Airlines is the poster child for this.  Focusing on their employees, and encouraging them to be customer focused ultimately drives up profits in part because of their motivated workforce and generally happy customers.  I'm OK with this motivation, but it's not one I own, because it's really not focused on people for their intrinsic worth, but as a means to an end.  It feels like you're just using them to get what you really want aka increased profits.

So, to item 2.  Without getting to moralistic or "high and mighty" let's think about  our  daily life in general.  The majority of the working population spends 8+ hours a day working and interacting with people.  We can see this as drudgery and a means to an end to make money, pay bills, survive to the weekend etc.  OR we can see this as a significant portion of our life, where we can engage with people, enjoy the interactions, solve problems, have fun, have a positive impact on others, etc.  Now I'm blessed with have a job I enjoy, working with awesome people whereas others are not so fortunate and have to endure a job and coworkers they really don't like.  But isn't that the point of shifting our focus?  I'd hazard a guess that many of the people who're not happy in their jobs have missed the point that people are more important than just making a dollar.  A couple of years ago I was a little disheartened to chat with a coworker who'd decided to retire early.  When I asked him why he said "it's not fun any more." That's sad. I hope I never get there.

OK, so shifting back to the positive, who are the "People" within whom we interact and how could a shift in perspective energize our businesses? In a business setting, we usually think of employees and clients or customers which covers the bulk of the people with whom we interact. For sure, we should focus on having good, positive and affirming relationships with coworkers and clients.  But we should also widen the envelope to include vendors, partners, people we know through professional organizations and... dare I say it... competitors. Gasp! "Be nice to the enemy?" If the end goal is just profits, then we don't need this wider view perhaps, but looking at how we live our lives and aim to enjoy work, then we shift to civility toward everyone, including our competitors ("friendly rivalry" anyone?). 

Projects

As an engineering firm we have a strong focus on projects. Doing them well, doing them on time, doing them to a high standard. This is all good, and it's very rewarding to execute a good project.  But with this, I think we still need to keep in mind the human side of work. I have heard the expression "best for the project" used to create some really dysfunctional work/life imbalance. Doing something "for the project" misses the point if we don't keep in mind that the project is ultimately to benefit someone. It's not a thing with it's own worth or a god to which you should sacrifice your health, your relationships and your family.

Profits 

OK, I'm not naive enough to think that we can all just be nice, have fun, sing kumbaya together and all will be fine.  We do need good business sense, plans, and financial goals. But I would like to think we can decrease our emphasis on profits, profits, profits, and take time to consider people, work/life balance and the more important things in life.  Ironically, focusing on your people, should improve your projects and profits (back to the Southwest example above). In other words:

"Valued people doing projects bring profits"

And the motivation becomes a little ambiguous!

So, what motivates you?