“Human-centred” is a term that’s easy to agree with in principle, but much harder to apply in the messy, fast-paced reality of business transformation. Too often, it’s reduced to a set of soft values or brushed aside as a ‘nice-to-have’ when deadlines loom. But in our work as consultants, we’ve seen that putting people at the heart of operating model redesign is not a luxury—it’s a necessity for lasting change.
So, what does human-centred really mean in the context of operating model transformation?
Defining Human-Centred Change in Consulting
At its core, human-centred change is about designing with people, not just for them. It means starting with an understanding of how people experience their work, what motivates them, and what challenges they face. From there, change is introduced in a way that respects those realities while enabling new behaviours, structures, and capabilities to emerge.
In consulting terms, this means shifting from being solution-led to being problem-aware and empathy-driven. Rather than arriving with a fixed blueprint, we engage deeply to co-discover what needs to change—and how.
Top-Down Redesign vs. Co-Created Design
Top-down redesigns often begin with leadership workshops, strategy decks, and target state models. While these elements are important, they often overlook how change will be received and realised on the ground. When people feel like passive recipients of change, resistance is natural. Even well-designed systems can fail if they ignore the human response.
In contrast, co-created design means involving people early and meaningfully. It’s about tapping into the collective intelligence of the organisation. Employees don’t just provide feedback—they help shape the future state. This leads to better designs and stronger ownership.
Methods That Enable Human-Centred Design
There are several structured approaches that bring a human-centered mindset to life:
- Design Thinking: Starts with empathy and iterates through testing, enabling teams to explore real-world needs before defining solutions.
- ADKAR Model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement): A practical framework that addresses individual change journeys.
- Co-Creation: Engaging cross-functional groups in solution design through workshops, journey mapping, and ideation.
- Behavioural Science: Applies insights about how people think, decide, and behave to shape interventions that actually work.
Together, these approaches help ensure that change is not just designed around process flow—but around people’s needs, habits, and capabilities.
A Case in Point
This philosophy isn’t abstract—it’s something we’ve applied across industries, and the results speak for themselves.
When we design and deliver OpEx interventions within Operations, we’ve seen a consistent pattern across industries: the real transformation begins not with tools or frameworks, but when the people doing the work start to believe they can shape how the work is done. At the start, teams often see change as something being done to them—another initiative focused on numbers, timelines, and KPIs. But through coaching, problem-solving workshops, and bringing leaders and teams together on the ground, there’s always an inflection point. It’s the moment when the workforce realises they are not just participants, but architects of the solution. This is when change becomes real—and lasting.
We’ve seen it in Customer Service departments, where teams reduced turnaround times for warranty returns from 12 weeks to just 12 days by identifying and implementing their own fixes—from layout adjustments to new equipment requests. We’ve seen it in banking operations, where teams redesigned how they handle core back-office processes, releasing capacity and reducing pain points for both employees and customers. The spark often starts small—a suggestion acted on, a visible change made—but when people see that their input leads to outcomes, momentum builds fast. At that point, our role shifts: we step back and let the team’s lead. The environment lifts, ownership grows, and the change no longer depends on us—it belongs to them.
This kind of impact doesn’t come from clever process maps alone. It’s the result of real listening, trust-building, and shared ownership.
Checklist: Is Your Operating Model People-Focused?
Use the following questions to reflect on your own initiatives:
- Have employees been involved in shaping the change?
- Is there a clear understanding of how changes will impact daily work?
- Are the “why” and “how” of the change communicated in human, not corporate, terms?
- Have we considered the behavioural habits we’re trying to change or support?
- Do teams have the tools, skills, and support they need to succeed?
If the answer is “no” to most of these, your model might look right, but it may not work in practice. And without this foundation, you (or we) will struggle to implement a lasting change programme on time and on budget.
In the next article, we’ll explore why even well-designed operating models can fail when the human element is ignored, and what leaders can do to avoid those pitfalls.
In the meantime, if you’d like to tweak your model or are curious about some of our stories, just let us know. We’re happy to share.
