Flickr // Jeremy Farmer Photog
I've been listening to a fair amount of Andrew Bird lately and in doing so, the song "Tables and Chairs" has particularly stood out for a number of reasons. The largest of them being a string of lyrics very early on in the song, "don't let the human factor fail to be a factor at all."
From where I stand, this is one of the biggest reasons behind the mess we're in. We've failed to let the human factor be a factor at all.
In the never-ceasing push to decrease costs and increase profits, we have often forgotten what it means to be humans making products, services, experiences and messages for other humans with other humans.
Somehow, when we step through the doors of our workplaces, we habitually plug into our routines to getting our work done in the most efficient way possible.
We erase the memory of how frustrated we get with another company when their __________ doesn't work / say / do something the way we expected and wanted it to.
We forget how much we like the people we work with and for outside of work.
We've slowly been programmed to focus on creating new ways to squeeze more out of people at the cash register instead of on helping each other get more out of life.
We have unconsciously stripped the human factor out of the way to make getting our jobs done easier, faster and ultimately, more profitable for our employers and investors.
Clearly, this has to stop if we want to make the changes this industry needs—the changes we all like to talk about so much.
We need to change our approach.
We need to remember the human side of who we're creating things for and who is creating them with us.
We need to stop giving only lip service to the idea of getting out of the office more to spend time with our customers and consumers.
We need to observe and engage with people in their everyday lives not only using the things we create, but also in and around those things, so that we can learn how to actually improve people's quality of life in some way.
We need to step back, take a new look at the world, and put people at the center.
In other words, we need to make the human factor the most important factor of all.
