The soft stuff that's really the hard stuff!

Wow, I don’t know about you but I am so over hearing people talk about the ‘soft stuff’! Of course what they are referring to is the people element of business.  The reason I believe it is often referred to as the soft stuff is because in actual fact it’s the hard stuff!  It’s the element that is often left out, or actioned at the last minute when it comes to major projects or programs.  It’s the element that is often referred to the HR team ...  why because it’s the soft stuff the People piece!!  When I hear people talk about the soft stuff the first thing I know is that they actually don’t know what to do with it or how to address it.  It has become an easy line to use to make an excuse for ignoring it or getting someone else to manage it!

Well I am here to tell you that the soft stuff is actually really the hard Stuff.  Why hard?  Because you’re dealing with people and all the emotional elements that come with this.  Get it right though and this is often the difference between a change that works and a change that doesn’t!  We know most change programs fail!  Why because this is the element that is not well managed. 

It is really time for business to stop referring to the people element of business as the soft stuff.  People are at the heart of business.  If you don’t get it right at this level, whatever you are doing will never really be sustainable.  It is people that actually make our business run.  It is people that interact all day long with customers.  It is the results of the actions people take that determine our overall business performance.

Most of the top performing companies around the world now understand this.  The people element has become one of the most critical measures that they now monitor.  This is what Thomas H. Davenport from the Harvard Business Review had to say “Organizations that have used data to gain human capital insights already have a hard-to-replicate competitive advantage.”

It’s time to move on from referring to the ‘soft stuff’ and acknowledge that this is the stuff that will make a difference to whether your business is here in a few years or not!

Good Luck.