Organisation & HR Consul
tancy
• HR Strategy
• People Policies
• Dispute Resolution
• Employee Relations
• HR Audit
Design to fit and build to last
In your business, you may have a philosophy that people are your greatest asset – and asset or not, they are likely to be one of your greatest costs!
We sometimes wonder if we haven’t forgotten more than we should have learned in the world of business and we chose this picture for a variety of reasons...
It is of the 12-angled stone that can be found in Hatum Rumiyoc Street in Cusco, Peru and a fine example of Inca craftsmanship that is easily accessible today. Inca architecture is most widely known for its fine masonry, featuring precisely cut and shaped stones that fit closely together – just like people in an effective business.
The Incas were skilled architects and stonemasons who built stuff to last - with no iron tools, no written language, no draft animals and no wheel. As if that wasn’t resource – starved enough by our modern standards, they also built to last without mortar.
That would be an impressive list of achievements on its own, but you need to add more than a few earthquakes into the sustainability equation. These massive walls and constructions had unparalleled seismic resistance and high static and dynamic steadiness to keep them stable during an earthquake. The construction meant that the separate pieces moved during an earthquake, only to lay down in exactly the right place afterwards.
The Inca stonemasons were there long before Mies van der Rohe and his philosophy of “less is more”, with their simple and elegantly proportioned craftsmanship with every stone in place and inter-locked. Following three key themes of precision, functionality and austerity, the stones were cut to perfection and interlocked, remaining today so that a knife cannot be inserted between the joins.
Another secret to the skill of the stonemasons was the social organisation necessary to maintain great numbers of people creating such energy-consuming monuments.
Similarly, all businesses and organisations are complex social environments. Changing and developing yours for the better relies on understanding some simple basics – and sometimes knowing where less is more.