Every business wants results.
And most businesses want some of those results to be better.
More sales. Greater productivity. Better customer relationships. More innovation. Fewer mistakes. Higher profitability.
So we change things.
We introduce a new strategy. Change a process. Invest in technology. Restructure a team. Set new targets. Provide more training.
All of these may be entirely appropriate.
But there is another question I wonder whether we ask often enough.
What actually has to happen for the result to change?
At some point, somewhere within the business, a person usually has to do something differently.
But before they can intentionally do something differently, something else has to change.
They have to think differently, see something differently or make a different choice.
That distinction may be more important than it first appears.
If a salesperson is expected to have a different conversation with a customer, there is a choice involved.
If a manager is expected to listen rather than assume, there is a choice involved.
If someone is expected to raise a concern earlier, there is a choice involved.
If a team is expected to embrace a new system rather than continue using the old workaround, there are choices involved.
And if a senior leader is prepared to question an assumption that has shaped the business for years, there is a choice involved there too.
People create actions. And choices help create those actions.
So perhaps, when we want to change a business result, looking only at the action we want people to take differently doesn’t take us quite far enough.
We might also become curious about the thinking and choices that currently produce that action.
That brings us to a different question:
If you want a different result in your business, what different choices do people need to make?
And by people, I mean all of us.
The person dealing with the customer.
The person operating the process.
The manager leading the team.
And those making choices at the very top of the organisation.
Of course, those choices do not happen in isolation.
Systems, targets, incentives, culture, previous experience, relationships and external pressures can all influence what people see and how they respond.
But influence is not necessarily the same as choice.
This is where Human Agency becomes interesting from a business perspective.
If Human Agency is our capacity to make choices and act intentionally within systems, then perhaps changing business performance is not only about changing the systems around people.
It may also involve understanding the human choices taking place within them.
So when looking at a result you would like to improve, perhaps there are three questions worth asking:
What are people doing now that contributes to the result we currently have?
What thinking and choices are contributing to those actions?
What different choices might make a different result possible?
Because changing an action without understanding what produced it may change what happens today.
Changing the thinking and choices behind it may change what happens tomorrow as well
If this raises a question about something happening within your own business, I work with senior business people as an Independent Co-Thinker — exploring familiar business challenges through a different lens.
Sometimes the value may simply be in asking a different question.You can find more about my thinking on Human Agency and my work at arbitrium
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Human Agency as Competitive Advantage: The Resource Already Within Your Organisation