“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words; people, product and profits.  People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two”

 Lee Lacocca

I drove past a building recently on my way to a meeting nearby.  The building was once a vibrating pulsating organisation but is now a steadily increasing eyesore of fading bricks and mortar, weeds pushing up through the once finely-tuned manicured gardens and meandering tarmac driveway. Now it’s empty, it’s dead, and life has moved on around it. The Engine of what was once a virile powerhouse has suddenly stopped. It’s now a derelict building.

The pulsating heart of that organisation stopped beating. But the organisation in and of itself never had a heart at all.  If you take a microscopic look at the detail of what looks like a heart in any organisation, it’s simply made up of people – many people, all with beating pulsating active hearts of their own.

Basically, what is deemed ‘an Organisation’ in itself is nothing!

I’ve seen many companies, old and new, come and go over the years. This particular organisation was once pulsating, vibrant, busy, energetic and productive. Unfortunately, the economic workhorse dictated that it was no longer a viable entity after 40 years. So the people walked out on their last day and the doors were shut behind them, the gate was padlocked and reinforced with barriers, just in case the people would forget and try to re-enter some morning.

Now, the organisations name for 40 years has been removed. All that’s left is the outline of where the name used to be.

This example reminds me of these simple equations:

No people = No culture

No people = No product

No people = No profits

No people = No organisation.

Four points. Four stark and humbling realities.

So tell me? – How can profits ever come before people?

An organisation is not ‘an organisation’ as we know it.  Essentially, it’s nothing without those beating hearts of the people who inhabit it.  A great organisation to work for is all about people. A great organisation is one that is filled with the beating hearts of wonderful leaders, who know how to nurture the other beating hearts, and create a thriving psychologically safe culture that’s made up of the healthy, respectful behaviours of these highly conscious leaders – behaving and acting in a way that cascades throughout the organisation and touches off and is deeply felt by everyone, at every moment.

This reminds of a proverb I heard recently…

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain; if you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees; if you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.”