Intelligence. Creativity. Love. Strength. Openness. Connection. Inspiration. Tenderness. Discipline. Rage. Courage. Artfulness. Curiosity. Compassion. Wisdom.
All of these are human resources.
What we’ve done by calling people ‘human resources’ obscures this. It forces us into a category that includes money, electricity, technology and fuel. This way we become objects rather than subjects, commodities rather than people, tools for production rather than living beings, ‘it’ rather than ‘I’. It’s an example of what in philosophy would be called a category error – a misunderstanding of the nature of things.
So is it any wonder that the systems and language we invent seriously limit the expression of our true resourcefulness?
Behaviours we expect people to follow – as if human beings had no interior world of discernment, meaning, and feeling from which their actions flow.
Values we expect others to take up uncritically as if they couldn’t determine for themselves what they’re deeply committed to.
Competency frameworks we design as if skillfulness, artistry and human ingenuity could be reduced to a set of bullet points.
Management that aims to reduce individuality, creativity and surprise, as if people were an irritant that gets in the way of the smooth running of the machine.
None of these do anything to amplify the real resources human beings have to bring to their lives and work.
And while we might think we’re only treating others in this way, we can’t help but diminish our own humanity each time we treat people as if they had little humanity of their own.
On living and working 