5 minute read 27 Jul 2020
Rock climber looking over the landscape desert towers moab utah usa

Eight human qualities that unleash greatness

By EY Americas

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

5 minute read 27 Jul 2020
Related topics Workforce

Show resources

  • Download the eBook - Unleashing human power to do the extraordinary (pdf)

We are each built on the Great Eight. These qualities are what make us unique and successful.

As we come to face rapidly changing realities, how do we solve for enhanced employee satisfaction, better customer experience and energetic execution of business strategy? How do we weave long-term value creation into daily operations?

The answer came to us through the fusion of numerous data points. At EY, we quickly discovered that the optimum digital strategy is a human strategy, one that uses technology to augment humans. Then, we examined what makes humans a unique species.

The complete collection of capabilities that make us fully human comprise the Great Eight: trust, collective cooperation, imagination, meaningful purpose, resilience, compassion, happiness and repetitive practice. The Great Eight are interconnected and propel each other. When activated in combination, they will unleash the best of individuals and teams—and therefore unleash organizations.

1. Trust: When what we do matches what we say

Trust is the superpower that lays the foundation for the other seven to emerge. To establish trust, leaders need to create a culture that values transparency, authenticity and the courage to fail.

We build trust through a pattern of selfless acts—giving our time, attention and resources to others without the expectation of material return. Selfless acts, such as extending unexpected rewards or offering additional support during heightened times of stress, tighten our human bonds, strengthen our psychological safety and help make our sense of fear more manageable.

  • Trust creates a sense of shared mission, unleashing meaningful purpose.
  • Trust creates a feeling of security, unleashing resilience and collective cooperation.
  • Trust facilitates healthy risk-taking and activates a growth mindset, unleashing imagination.
  • Trust helps us connect as individuals, unleashing happiness and compassion.
  • Trust opens the door to possibility, unleashing transformative practice.
Sign of success:
  • Employees feel free to make independent decisions

2. Meaningful purpose: When we know and understand why

Humans may be the only species capable of asking for meaning. We ask why, we’re engaged by the search and we’re motivated by the answers.

When an organization has a clearly defined purpose, individuals can more easily align with it. A sense of belonging, built on trust, creates a shared story that allows meaning to emerge.

Signs of success:
  • It’s easy to tell the story of your organization’s purpose
  • You remember when you first recognized your individual sense of purpose, when you realized how you could use your talents to build a better working world

Show resources

  • Download the eBook - Unleashing human power to do the extraordinary

3. Collective cooperation: When our shared intelligence emerges

From our days as members of small communities to the formation of cities and states, to the creation of a global community, human achievement is the result of our ability to develop networks. Powered by trust and purpose, groups can combine their strength and intelligence to solve problems.

Sign of success:
  • Team members have many ways to get to know one another

 4. Imagination: When we envision a new way

Humans are the only species whose response to problems is to imagine scenarios, play them out and envision possible outcomes. Imagination and innovation emerge when trust, purpose and collective cooperation are activated, and when failure is a viable option.

Sign of success:
  • Responsible risk is encouraged in your organization

At this point in history, human beings spend a tremendous amount of time serving technology. But technology is the product of human imagination, and perhaps we might consider that artificial intelligence is here to augment—not supplant— human intelligence.

Sign of success:
  • A core value is reducing the amount of time your workforce spends maintaining and feeding information to technology

5. Resilience: When we grow and adapt

Every living thing has a zone of well-being, and every living thing will sometimes get knocked out of that zone. How quickly we return to balance is how we describe resilience. If trust, meaningful purpose, collective cooperation and imagination are activated, bouncing back becomes easier, and organizations will be equipped to take on change.

Sign of success:
  • Members of your workforce have trusted sources to turn to in moments of difficulty

6. Compassion: When we truly see others

Humans are one of the few species that can consider another’s perspective and feel another’s pain. What makes compassion especially human is our willingness to help rather than turn away, and through our intelligence, to extend compassion to everyone—not just to those in our group.

Compassion engenders loyalty and connection. When we feel understood and cared for, we are motivated to stick with others for the long-term and seek their success.

Sign of success:
  • People are comfortable speaking about personal challenges at work

7. Happiness: When we embrace the positive

By nature’s design, the human mind is more easily overtaken by worry than it is by joy. But what happens when we make the decision to pay as much attention to what is going right? When we pay attention to what brings us joy? Purpose and connection fuel happiness—and when people are happy, they take pride in and ownership of their work.

They are unleashed to imagine great things and serve others.

Sign of success:
  • Your organization has ways to measure the happiness of your workforce

8. Transformative practice: When we embody lasting change

Humans don’t just have the ability to adapt. They have the power to assess, process, grow. Flourishing in the face of change requires mutual trust, a mindset open to possibility and ongoing practice—both on the individual and corporate level.

Genuine transformation comes in three stages:

  • Learning: Gathering information through reading and/or listening.
  • Personalizing: Thinking about how the knowledge applies to your own life and recognizing it in an “a-ha” moment.
  • Meditating or practicing: Rehearsing the insight until it becomes a part of who you are, until it changes the way you think and behave.
Signs of success:
  • Key leaders authentically believe lasting change in the individual is possible and have a clear sense of how their organization encourages a culture of growth
  • During times of struggle or rapid change, both individuals and the collective workforce show increasing resilience

Summary

The Great Eight human qualities are the baseline for igniting business strategies and unleashing teams and individuals to do the extraordinary.

About this article

By EY Americas

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

Related topics Workforce