Why organizations must treat humans with sensitivity, not just data
An internet search brings up lots of talk about how organizations can protect sensitive data. There is a real concern brewing around privacy and protection, and rightfully so. Data can be delicate because it contains our lives within it. It makes me wonder then, why are we not talking more about the lives contained within organizations? We must not only protect sensitive data but also human sensitivity.
What do I mean by sensitivity? I mean dialing into the innate human capacity to feel what is under the surface and be responsive. This magic trick is not in spite of but because we are human. I am not speaking about intuition in the sense of a psychic who claims to predict your future. This is about knowing when something is not quite right, about tuning into the subtleties that humans are uniquely positioned to sense.
Recently, I gave feedback in passing to a colleague and immediately upon delivery, the mood in the room shifted. It altered something and I knew it, but I let it go in favor of continuing the meeting. In an act of sensitivity, I reconnected with her later and she admitted it had jarred her. Our conversation resulted in a deeper connection between the two of us, one that I suspect will make us more productive together going forward. In how many moments like these do we just let it go? How often do we feel something is not quite right, yet leave the invisible emotional elephant unnamed?
It may seem like a nothing moment. Let’s all just be adults and move on. But all these micro-moments add up to an organization that lacks psychological safety, to use the term du jour. Perhaps most importantly, it dismantles an individual and organization’s ability to be whole. One definition of wholeness is the state of being unbroken or undamaged. To be damaged is to be hurt. We are hurting our organizations and the people who dwell inside them by leaving humanity in the wake.
Ultimately, this damages an organization’s ability to come together to drive business results and if you consider yourself a business minded person, this may be the part you care most about. But if you are a human being who knows what it feels like to be out of truth with yourself, playing a role and putting on a mask, then the stakes are even higher. You are actually losing yourself, despite the fact that being human can be a joyous journey. Let’s remind ourselves: we are humans, not machines.
To bring back sensitivity into organizations requires what I call sensitive action.
Three sensitive actions to consider:
- The simple (but difficult) act of pause. When was the last time you took a moment, a breath and just were “with” a situation? Rather than moving quickly to solve, create space between the moment and the response. Give yourself a chance to tune in more deeply. This also is a great tool to reduce reactivity in our always on, attention-seeking world.
- Enable the conditions for conversation over problem-solving. To do this requires a question-first mindset. Tuning into the needs of the situation and to others requires deeper listening than we typically do in organizations. This curiosity comes from seeking the right question, not the right answer. As Tim Brown of IDEO says, “The right unit of exploration is the question, not the solution.”
- Get out of your everyday environment. We become fish swimming in our own ocean, blind to the water around us. To enhance sensitivity and awareness, regularly disrupt your habitual patterns. Drive a different way to work, go to a different coffee shop, meet someone new.
Sensitivity has been given a bad rap. When was the last time you heard someone say, “Don’t be so sensitive?” We must reinvent our relationship with sensitivity.
Enhancing our innate human capacity for sensitivity is a way forward to ensure organizations are malleable, emergent and adaptive. This is what is required as the technology landscape changes. I am not one who buys into the hype about machines taking over, but I do think there is an urgent need for us to remember (or rather rediscover) who we are and what we are capable of becoming in order to keep pace.
Will you answer the call to use your sensitive nature to tune into yourself and others so our lives (both inside and outside of the organization) are undamaged?
