Paul McKey - Synergistic Design

The People component of Synergistic Design is affected by all perspectives and equally affects all perspectives. Yet who looks out for the people? The shift in thinking of people as a resource to people as an asset has taken place over the last 50 years. When manual skills were dominant and labour costs low people were treated as a fixed price commodity. The information age reverses that view and attitude and we now consider human capital instead of resources.
The human related disciplines have spread from the narrow personnel payroll view to spawn over thirty disciplines concerned with some aspect of the recruitment, retention and improvement of people. Shareholder management, customer service and the myriad of HR services (such as remuneration, downsizing, learning and development) all recognise the new importance of people in all parts of the organisation.
For example in the insurance sector, for years dominated by price, has prompted Roger Bell, CEO of Vero New Zealand, to say “we get our growth from the strength of our brand and better people” (Insurance and Risk Professional, December 2005).
Organisational change, business improvement or transformation, and performance management are all growth industries as organisations seek that elusive competitive advantage. They all have people at their core.
The People category will accumulate the ideas and practices affecting people in organisations.