The 5 principles of Human Interaction Management
To create effective teams, it must be clear who is involved in a particular process, and what each person brings to the table. As a starting point, the identity, skills, experience, and personal characteristics of each person must be captured. It is then necessary to define each individual’s responsibilities, and negotiate their commitment to accepting these responsibilities.
If people are to manage their interactions with others better, their communications must be structured and goal-directed. Within a process, there must be specific channels of communication for different purposes, each of which unifies messages transmitted via a variety of means (email, text message, FAX, voice-over-IP, etc).
Organizations must learn to manage the time and mental effort their staff members invest in researching, comparing, considering, deciding, and generally turning information into knowledge and ideas. The people responsible for creating and managing this knowledge must be able to control its usage and distribution.
Humans may not sequence their activities in the manner of a software program, but there is always structure to human work, which must be understood and institutionalized so that it can be managed and improved. This means empowering people to choose and/or create their own work activities from an appropriate range, guided by understanding of organizational context (so that they can aim to deliver maximum value) and restricted by business rules that prevent contravention of applicable policies and standards.
Human activities are concerned often with solving problems, or making something happen. Such activities routinely start in the same fashion - by establishing a way of proceeding. Before you can design your new widget, or develop your marketing plan, you need to work out how you are going to do so - which methodology to use, which tools are required, which people should be consulted, and so on. In other words, process definition is an intrinsic part of the process itself. It takes place via negotiation between all involved parties, and is not a one-time thing but happens continually throughout the life of the process.
The modelling framework that implements the principles
How to Work
R
–
Research
E
– Evaluate
A
- Analyze
C
– Constrain
T
- Task
How to Learn (Research)
A
– Access
I –
Identify
M - Memorize
Work and Workers
Human Driven Work or Mechanistic Work
Interaction Worker or Independent Worker
Conversations
For Context
What is this work about?
For Possibility
Do we want to work together?
For Disclosure
On what basis?
For Action
Request/Promise
Offer/Accept
Report/Acknowledge
Levels of Control
Strategic
External
to work process
Overall sponsor
Defines key
deliverables/metrics
Executive
External
to work process
Accountable/informed/consulted
Refines
deliverables
Defines key Roles/Interactions/Activities
Management
Internal
to work process
Responsible
Refines initial
process
Facilitates/monitors process and its evolution
Users
Identity
Physical
Location
Virtual Location
Relationships
User
Type
Capabilities (knowledge and experience)
Organizational
Authority
Characteristics
User Characteristics
Action
Shaper
Implementer
Finisher
People
Coordinator
Teamworker
Investigator
Cerebral
Plant
Evaluator
Specialist
Leader
Manager
Executive
Strategist
Activities
Units of work
Include one or more Tasks
Atomic
Transactional:
Failure
of any Task => undo of all Tasks
Roles
Goals
Responsibilities
Interests
and Agreements
Information (private)
References to other
Roles
Capabilities (powers and permissions)
Process
Authority
Speech Acts
Intended
Manner
(aka
Illocutionary Force)
Assertive
Directive
Commissive
(Promise, Intention)
Expressive
Declarative
Intended
Effect
(aka
Performative)
Interactions
Asynchronous
Exchange
of Information
Exchange of Intent (Speech Acts)
Resources
Offline
/ online
Information within Role
Atomic –
digital
Shared by Role
States (Rules)
Pre-Condition
Post-Condition
Interaction Patterns
For
deciding on next steps
Agreement
For
doing work
Collaborative
Transaction
The software that implements the modelling framework
Get HumanEdj and work better.