In a working world increasingly focused on cognitive skills and collaboration, soft skills are proving to be essential pillars for achieving operational excellence.
The problem is that I don’t read much on the subject. Perhaps because the concept of operational excellence comes from the world of manufacturing and is associated with technical consequences. Maybe because it’s seen more as a way of streamlining interactions than as a performance lever. But it’s time to admit that the concept now extends to all sectors, and not just those where production capacity resides in machines.
Collaboration is the new production system
In knowledge work, value no longer resides in linear, repetitive, fixed processes (People Centric Operations: adapting work and operations to knowledge workers)
From this perspective, collaboration has become the new production system (The Social Network is the new production line), and soft skills are the essential cogs in the wheel.
Active listening (The Discipline of Listening), empathy and conflict management enable teams to survive in complex, even complicated projects and environments, and to overcome differences, whether cultural, functional or geographical.
Soft skills are essential for remote work
We saw it when COVID imposed remote work on us. Not only were organizations unprepared, but managers were even less so. In fact, it showed the limits that already existed in the office by pushing them to the limit (Remote work: a mirror of the organizations’ weaknesses.).
Although things have changed since then, few businesses have taken the opportunity to force managers to work on their soft skills, which is one of the reasons why, aware of their shortcomings in this area, many are campaigning for a return to the office.
With the rise of remote work, soft skills have taken on even greater importance. Communicating effectively without the usual visual and non-verbal cues requires greater clarity, kindness and even patience (How to Improve Your Soft Skills as a Remote Worker). The ability to create a bond despite distance relies on a certain emotional intelligence and adaptability.
A manager who knows how to ask the right questions, clarify expectations (CRM can save your business, but not the CRM you think!, and No one should be promoted to manager if they don’t know how to use ChatGPT) and maintain motivation across a screen makes the difference between a dispersed team and an aligned one.
These interpersonal skills are vital if we are to reconcile performance and well-being in a hybrid work environment.
Continuous improvement: a human dynamic
Continuous improvement, whether part of a Lean, Agile or other approach, relies on a dynamic of collective questioning (Improving a team’ s work: a story of continuous improvement). But this dynamic is only possible with solid soft skills:
- Open communication: sharing constructive feedback without creating unnecessary tension (The Art Of Delivering Constructive Feedback).
- Humility: recognizing mistakes and welcoming the ideas of others (The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders).
- Team problem-solving: mobilizing everyone’s talents to co-create solutions.
Without these skills, continuous improvement becomes a theoretical exercise, far removed from human and operational realities. You can document all the processes you want, adopt the most tried-and-tested methods, use tools that facilitate the approach, but without collaboration and listening, the system is doomed to fail.
We need to rethink soft skills training and assessment
Despite their crucial importance, soft skills are often undervalued or misunderstood in business. Assessing and developing these skills must be a priority. Businesses can invest in training, integrate soft skills into recruitment criteria and value these qualities in performance appraisals.
Unfortunately, too many businesses, although aware of the importance of soft skills, face a number of biases that prevent them from embarking on a genuine measurement and development process (Bridging the gap: The challenge of measuring and developing essential soft skills).
Bottom line
Soft skills are not “nice-to-haves”, but “must-haves” in an environment where human relations are becoming the key to value creation. Whether it’s a question of collaboration, remote work or continuous improvement, these skills are both the foundation and the lever of performance and, ultimately, of operational excellence.
Image :soft skills by inspiring.team via Shutterstock.
