Organisational Change

6.6.3 People Skills

As stated earlier, people are the sine qua non of any organisation. Moreover, they come in all manner of sizes, shapes, colours, intelligence and ability levels, gender, sexual preferences, national origins, first and second languages, religious beliefs, attitudes towards life and work, personalities and priorities—and these are just a few of the dimensions along which people vary. We have to deal with them all.

The skills most needed in this area are those that typically fall under the heading of communication or interpersonal skills. To be effective, we must be able to listen and listen actively, to restate, to reflect, to clarify without interrogating, to draw out the speaker, to lead or channel a discussion, to plant ideas, ...