Understanding the 6 Human Needs

Leaders need to be aware of the basic human needs that we all have. Awareness of your own helps you as you naviagate your career and also helps to understand what is going on with the people you are leading and why they don't always behave in logical ways.

If you are having difficulty with the adoption of your improvement innitiatives then consider if the basic needs of the people working for you are being met. The thing to understand is that our needs are not black and white or off and on. We need them all to a certain extent but each individual has a different level of need and they can vary at different times in our lives.

For example if you are having difficulties in your family life and there is a lot of uncertainty about the future then you will probably have a higher need for certainty at work to help compensate.

Then you have people like my Aunty Marj and Uncle Arthur who despite their names have a low need for certainty. They are in their late 60's and are backpacking through Iceland, Russa and most of the rest of europe for two months. They don't speak the language and have only their first night of accommodation booked.

Let's look at the needs in a bit more detail.

Certainty

We all like to have a degree of certainty in our lives and change programs can have an impact on the degreee of certainty that people have, espcially if they feel the change is imposed upon them. This leads to push back and reverting to the old " tried and true" methods even if they are a step backwards.

Strategy

Find ways to put more certainty into the new way of doing things

• work with the people impacted on a detailed plan
• negotiate the new way as a trial that will only continue if it is a better way
• make it comparitivly more certain than doing nothing - highlighting the danges of sitting still (dangerous if you don't get this right as it may just increase anxiety levels overall)
• take it a step at a time so people have time to adjust
• establish or maintain routines as much as you can

Variety

Often your top performers and most creative and innovative people will have a high need for varity. If they don't get that need met they will leave. These people regard certainty as being boring and like to live on the edge. They make great change agents but need to be mindful of other peoples needs as they will often get frustrated if the pace of change isn't fast enough for them.

Strategy

Find ways to provide variety in their jobs

• engage them as continuous improvement champions but ensure that there is a robust PDCA or other loop closing methodology otherwise they will leave a trail of loose ends behind them
• don't try to keep them in one job role even if they are excellent at it, provide a development pathway that lets them to get lots of variety.
• ensure that they can engage with cross functional teams such as RCA investigation teams or Green Teams to help break up routine and make use of their creativity

Love and Connection

This refers the the sense of belonging of being part of a group. People with a strong need for love and connection are generally great team players. They will be aware of the needs of others and go out of their way to help. They will also often have a lot of difficulty with performance management and frank conversations with others if they are not doing the correct thing and are much happier to look the other way. Often team leaders who have been promoted from a team struggle with the loss of connection in their new role.

Strategy

Find ways for discipline to be maintained without people feeling that they will be alienated

• Establish a visual performance management system to make it easier to talk about performance
• Focus on team performance and make expectations of team members very clear
• Provide ways for team leaders to have peer group connections to replace the team connections when they step up into their new role

Significance

We all want to be seen as special in some way and to be noticed as individuals. We can come to resent it and feel unappreciated if we are never singled out for recognition. The challenge with this is that different people have different ways that they want to be recognised. Some love to be the centre of attention where others would rather die than to walk up the front of a group of people to accept a reward or certificate. This is why it is so important that leaders walk the floor so that you can spot the right behaviours and give someone a quiet word or acknowledgment or even just greet people by name.

Strategy

Find ways to make sure that people know that their individual efforts are recognised

• Have a reward and recognition scheme but beware paying cash or large prizes is a very difficult thing to get right and can be demotivating if you don't
• Have social events like a monthly BBQ or other activity where people can talk
• Get managment out into the factory and learn peoples names
• Provide an opportunty for peoples improvement efforts to be recognised - a Kaizen board, report to management or in the internal newsletter

Growth and Contribution

The needs to grow and contribute can be extremely powerful if the basic needs are being met. However if people are feeling under threat or unappreciated then the growth and contributio needs are suppressed and it's every man or woman for themselves.

In a way the culture of an organisation is developed by how well peoples individual needs are met. If people feel secure and have enough variety to make the work interesting, there are inclusive teams and they are recognised for their efforts then you are likely to find that they are interested in learning new things and are willing to contribute beyone the minimum of what they are paid for.

Strategy

Support your people to grow - Toyota says "You can't grow your business without growing your people." and make it easy for them to contribute.

• Have an improvement suggestion scheme and make sure that there is rapid feedback to the individual for all suggestions. You don't have to implement every suggestion, people don't expect that but they do expect their suggestions to be acknowledged and if not able to be implemented they want to know why.
• Have a career path available to people so they know what they need to do to grow within your organisation
• Involve everyone in continuous improvement so that everybody, everyday have the opportunity to contribute to improving the business.

What else are you doing within your organisation to make sure that your people are getting their basic human needs met?

Visit the LEAN Rt website www.sirfrt.com.au/lean for more information about implementing lean competitive manufacturing