By Martin Padulla for staffingamericalatina

Really? Again? Using that uncomfortable word once more? What’s wrong with this guy? Is the end of the year getting to him? Why doesn’t he just reflect on the lessons of the year or take stock?

Alright, alright. I know that those who recall last December’s column might be asking these questions or perhaps thinking I have an abolitionist fixation. Last year, I didn’t avoid the topic: I argued why I chose that word and why it unsettles us. I won’t dwell on that again in this column. I simply think it’s timely to point out that as long as millions of people around the world are fighting for their freedom, victims of modern forms of slavery, it’s worth using this word and reflecting on it.

It is also relevant to use it for everything that hinders personal development and freedom. After all, it is through development and freedom that human potential can become limitless.

For this ending year, 2024, my wish was to abolish the unpoetic oxymoron Human Resources. How can we create a people-centered culture without eradicating the belief that humans can be considered resources? I tried to show that this isn’t a semantic issue, nor is it merely about renaming a department. I was referring—and still am—to something fundamental, conceptual, and cultural. The objectification of individuals is, on the one hand, morally questionable and, on the other, from a management perspective, an archaic way of leading. It neither transforms nor makes an impact.

Linguistic habits are a crucial part of an organization’s culture. Now, is organizational culture important?

I must admit that my wish for the coming year actually stems from a lesson born of a question. As I delved into leadership and organizational culture management, the underlying question that kept surfacing was, “Okay, but how can we truly transform?”

Successful transformational leaders consider managing culture to be essential and a priority. They understand it as managing the only true competitive advantage, the factor that genuinely distinguishes us from the competition. Many aim to create and nurture innovative cultures. Several strive to design the concept proposed by Kegan and Lahey of deliberately developmental organizations (DDOs), fostering the personal and professional growth of their teams to achieve goals.

However, it’s possible to observe transformational leaders who consciously and actively work on identity, beliefs, and the idea of exemplarity. They serve as excellent vehicles for values and narratives that reinforce culture and are great facilitators. Yet, they fail to achieve significant transformation.

The reality is that transformational leadership is a necessary but insufficient condition. Creating a DDO is a great step, but it’s not enough. For a long time, I wondered about the missing piece, and this year, I found a plausible answer that I later empirically validated in successful concrete cases.

Hamel and Zanini argue that bureaucracy is the enemy to overcome. It is rigidity that prevents impact, and this obstacle is key because those impacts translate into tangible results. The authors suggest that building humanocracies involves, by definition, eradicating bureaucracy. This isn’t about focusing on extraordinary leaders but about creating organizations that unlock the full potential of their teams and capitalize on it. This requires a radical shift in how we conceive organizations and leadership. It entails rethinking power dynamics, fully embracing delegation and autonomy, fostering trust and transparency, championing openness and flexibility, and adopting flat and agile structures.

Autonomy is directly linked to initiative and the possibility of innovation. When we systematically reduce people’s freedom, we also diminish their commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity. We block the real opportunity to transform.

Bureaucrats are transactional leaders, defenders of the status quo. Bureaucracy was designed to produce conformity, discipline, and predictability. It served a world that no longer exists. To build innovative organizations and achieve real transformation, we need a paradigm where people are not considered resources or capital. What we need is to increase participation, not conformity.

We must hack the system, drastically reduce the bureaucratic mass index of our organizations, and rethink them with a people-centered approach. By adopting the principles and practices of a humanocracy, we can create resilient, innovative, and enthusiastic organizations. Without a doubt, it’s a challenging but deeply rewarding endeavor.

My wish for 2025 is that all transformational leaders in the region can:

• Defeat omnipresent bureaucracies.
• Empower each vulnerable and unique individual who is an essential part of their teams.
• Build trust and autonomy to strengthen those teams through each individual.
• Align each person’s purpose with a massive transformative purpose.
• Actively manage a culture of innovation and transformation that turns every mistake into a learning opportunity.
• Ensure that every person, through their integral development, becomes the ultimate explanation for the organization’s results.
• Embrace the paradigm of humanocracy to honor the full scope of human potential.

Let it be so.
Happy 2025!

Photo of Erol Ahmed in Unsplash