The Culture of no rules, only values.

Frameworks, Rulebooks, Guidelines, and so on, are things every HR Manager/ Company CEO loves.

Let me be honest with you. Even me, in all the endeavors I have been part of,(Not as an HR manager) I cared much about strategy and implementation frameworks of marketing plans, projects, and programs that I managed.

But you know what? I cared much more about The Human.

In Marketing, I learned to empathize with customers and the team as well. At times, I had to change the process, wipe out the plan, and re-think the strategy, all while testing and going the extra mile to understand the customer’s and team’s needs.

In projects I managed for NGOs, I also learned that an Excel worksheet is not our only reference. Team, stakeholders, and partners’ feedbacks along the process should be your top concern. Along the way, you need to stop and question your systems and processes and remind yourself that it all starts with people.

Knowing that a strategy/framework is the mix of data, activities, external and internal factors, relevant resources, and especially team/partners and customer expectations, all mingling during changed time spans, I learned that flexibility and focusing on people was key.

Now let me walk you through “The WHY” of this article.

Well, I cried twice this week.

Once because I actually knew how a ride for my home country to celebrate the last Eid party with my mom and family can literally be my top and only goal for this week. And how can “yes, I know your situation, I trust you will finish your work on time, go and enjoy your stay with your family” simple attitude can change the mood of someone really craving to put his personal life. for once, as a priority before work.

And once, because a person I loved had to go through the experience of leaving his job because he was just not enough.

I stopped for a while and thought about how a company’s culture isn’t some statement you put on your website and a company’s values aren’t just some words put on a pitch deck. It is not just about imposed HR strategies, policies, and regulations, It is much more: Culture is created by each individual that joins the company either as a team member or partner or customer, and is ever-changing with each employee or new project’s on-boarding.

That said, never have I been into a position of an HR manager, but what I know is that being a corporate HR representative/manager is tough, I get it, but nothing is harder than being unemployed, less-appreciated, miss-understood by being bogged down by unnecessary bureaucratic rules and regulations.

I’ve learned a huge amount in the previous years. Some of this learning has been about work ethics, commitment, productivity, and so on, but what I learned the most is that we create winning processes with empathy, not with a guideline or rulebook: Once a company culture is built on values like empathy, meaning, and purpose, the right processes will follow as the output of the people: The team who works there, the partners who believe in its vision, and the customers who trust it and find its mission to be credible, and relevant to them.

Please try harder:

• Enable don’t interfere: Keep it dynamic, infuse HR policies the right way, don’t impose, and think about the psychological contract before employment or partnership contract.
• Recognize, reward, and improve the future of your talents, instead of popping out whenever they make a mistake.

One last thing:

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” — Richard Branson