The bundling and unbundling of people and operations
Once I start to consider the experience of a person intricately merged with the operations of it I start to wonder where dividing lines are appropriate. In my day-to-day work I keep thinking about how processes “owned” by HR like performance management and the ones “owned” by product ops like feedback cycles.
There are real reasons to keep them separate…
We should get all types of feedback but not be judged on the feedback itself. Should you be judged on the fact that someone disagrees with how you do something, even if they aren’t in the same practice as you?
The way we perform means different things in different contexts. What if you aren’t given the chance to actually do everything in the competence ladder for your role and level? Is that your fault or the orgs?
The trend of automation of rote process sees to point to real automation of certain types of managerial process, regulatory compliance, and enforcement of rules should go to automation. Whereas the continuous improvement of the way we work, questioning power in organizations, and being a marketplace of work should point to a human-focused way of helping people.
Why won’t there be an evolution of HR/people ops and product ops roles to better the organization and the people at the same time?
Axioms
In the effort to make this a liminal space between the ideas stewing in my head and the practice of creating artifacts, I want to include some tagging in these concepts. These “axioms” might we ways to collect the beliefs and principles that I bring to my work. Here goes:
Take wider frames - when there seems to be a lot of overlap maybe the current frame isn’t appropriate any longer. This could also mean that we sometimes need to rotate the frame we are using as a dividing line to allow for changes in either side.
Don’t shy away from trans/inter/meta-disciplinary work - even though we aren’t always rewarded (or acknowledged) by work between disciplines, this is where the next innovations come from.
Power within organizations is rarely for the better of the organization - when we start to allow people amass power we let them get away with things that are not only bad from a legal standpoint (see any powerful person that held off a reckoning once to only have another one later that is bigger). But also they end up stifling the change and awareness of change that they often can’t bring to the table (see dominant logic theory).