Are people more than resources?

Nick
 

What did you actually mean?

Inmy experience, it’s a combination of things; something isn’t happening as quickly as you (or the other stakeholders) would like, or as well as you’d like it to; or there’s more work than you can achieve in the time available with the current team.

“resource”

An economic or productive factor required to accomplish an activity, or as means to undertake an enterprise and achieve desired outcome.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/resource.html

Used as defined, it works rather well. However, if you’ve started talking about people with skills as merely resources then I’ve found that it - often - masks other challenges.

I’d argue some of the following might be worth considering:

  1. Are the requirements fully understood?
  2. Is there a prioritised backlog?
  3. Does the team have the right tools to do the job they’re being asked to do?
  4. Is there anything getting in the way of their primary purpose?
  5. Has the vision been communicated clearly?

So, what are the alternatives?

“What help do we need?”

You might be surprised at the answer this elicits from the team.

“How can we remove impediments?”

Chances are you don’t have all the answers here; the team doing the work are best placed to tell you this. It’s possibly your role to facilitate and allow their ideas to be tested? (notice I’m not assuming you have any particular role — you may be a team member, a stakeholder, senior management or anyone in-between)

“What challenges do we have?”

These might not be apparent if you’re not part of the team.

“Can we better schedule the tasks?”

This could be a blog all on it’s own, but it comes down to realism. Commercial reality can often dictate tighter timescales than anyone feels comfortable with, but if these aren’t communicated (and scope duly limited) then don’t be surprised when you’re having the r-word conversation.

Avoid dehumanizing employees as “resources” or “work packages”. If you contextualize people as inanimate objects, you will get less than the person has to offer. Employees are human beings with creative and innovative potential. Value them accordingly.

https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/20-unagile-things-avoid-saying-and-some-better-alternatives (thanks Ian Mitchell)

People are most definitely more than resources.

The use of the term resource implies that any provision of that commodity will suffice. In my view, this devalues the unique skill and ownership that comes from a valued team member fulfilling a task. Long term, I believe this could reduce the team’s confidence and ability to deliver.

What effect do you think this would have on a team? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for reading.

(First published on Medium 6th March 2019, pre-ai revolution)

https://medium.com/@adrenalinehit/are-people-more-than-resources-c76b7bac2f1d

 

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