Why Business Lost Its Humanity
- PEP Team
- Mar 11
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
There was a moment in our recent PEP Talk conversation with organisational coach Colart Miles from Praxxis Group that stopped me in my tracks.
He said something simple, but quietly radical.
Modern organisations, he suggested, are still running on an operating system that’s about 300 years old.
The roots of the modern corporation stretch back to the age of global trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company. The structure that emerged from that period was designed for a very particular world: one built on hierarchy, control, and efficiency at scale.
In other words, companies were designed to function like machines.
And machines require parts.
Over time, people became those parts.
The Machine Model of Business
If you look closely at many organisations today, the mechanical metaphor still dominates.
We talk about structures, processes, operating models, reporting lines, and systems. Job descriptions define the “shape” each person is expected to fit into. When someone steps outside that shape, they can appear to be a problem.
But humans don’t behave like cogs.
We’re intuitive. Creative. Relational. Capable of noticing problems that no system has yet defined.
And when organisations treat people purely as components in a process, something essential gets lost.
Humanity.
Colart has spent much of his career helping teams rediscover that missing element.
As a facilitator and organisational coach, he often works with large organisations undergoing major change. His focus is rarely the formal structure alone. Instead, he looks at something deeper: how people actually work together.
Because you can write values on the wall of every meeting room in a building. But if the organisation’s systems and processes don’t support those values, they remain just words.
Machines vs Living Systems
One of the most powerful ideas in our conversation was the contrast between two ways of seeing organisations.
The first is the machine view.
In this model, a company is a clockwork mechanism. Every person has a defined role, every activity follows a predictable process, and success comes from maintaining efficiency and control.
The second view is far more organic.
In this perspective, organisations are living systems made up of people. They adapt, learn, and evolve. Innovation emerges from the edges rather than the centre. Individuals step into unexpected roles when opportunities arise.
This second way of seeing organisations requires trust. It also requires something many institutions struggle with: allowing people to act beyond the limits of their job descriptions.
But when organisations make that shift, something interesting happens.
Performance improves.
Not because processes disappear, but because people are empowered to bring their full capability to the work.
The Role of Purpose
Another thread running through our conversation was purpose.
For Colart, purpose isn’t a slogan or a branding exercise. It’s more like a compass.
Purpose doesn’t automatically create outcomes. But it does shape the small decisions people make every day.
If someone has a clear sense of purpose, it influences how they choose between competing priorities, how they interpret problems, and how they respond when things become difficult.
In his case, the guiding idea is simple:
Bring humanity back into business.
That purpose affects everything from the clients he works with to the way he approaches change.
Failure as Data
One of the most memorable pieces of advice Colart shared was this:
“If you’re trying to find your purpose, double your rate of failure.”
It sounds counterintuitive, but the idea is straightforward.
Purpose isn’t something most people discover through careful planning alone. It often emerges through experimentation, action, and reflection.
Every attempt produces information.
Failure, in that sense, is not the opposite of success. It’s simply data.
The more experiments you run, the more clarity you gain about what matters and where you’re heading.
The Pioneers on the Fringe
Colart also described himself as someone naturally drawn to the edges of systems.
Innovation rarely emerges from the centre of established structures. It tends to happen on the fringes, where explorers, pioneers, and experimenters operate.
Historically, scouts ventured into unknown territory. Pioneers followed and built new settlements. Eventually, settlers arrived and established stable systems.
Many of today’s innovators occupy that early stage.
They are exploring possibilities that established organisations have not yet fully recognised.
Finding Hope in a Complex World
It’s easy to look at the state of the world and feel pessimistic. Global politics, technological disruption, and economic uncertainty can make the future feel unstable.
But Colart ended our conversation with a different suggestion.
Our minds are wired to look for threats. It’s an ancient survival instinct.
But if we deliberately look for signs of possibility, innovation, and positive change, we begin to notice them more often.
And the more we see those signals, the more they shape how we act.
In other words, the future isn’t only determined by systems.
It’s also shaped by what we choose to notice and what we choose to build.
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