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What is Human Interaction Management (HIM)?

Human Interaction Management (HIM) is the set of principles and patterns for structuring, supporting and controlling human work practices first described by Keith Harrison-Broninski in his 2005 book "Human Interactions".

Current mainstream techniques and tools for work support, whether categorized as Workflow or as Business Process Management (BPM), deal only with "mechanistic" business processes. In such business processes, human involvement is limited to key data entry and decision points. Workflow/BPM techniques and tools deal with only the externally-observable aspects of work - tasks, that are visible from outside.

HIM extends this to include support for "human-driven" processes focused on human creativity and collaboration. To achieve this, HIM deals not only with tasks, but also with those aspects of work visible from inside - information, interaction and innovation.

In HIM, a business process requiring human knowledge, judgement and experience is divided into collaborating Roles, which are then assigned to the appropriate people via a Human Interaction Management System (HIMS). The HIMS not only co-ordinates work activities but also exchanges messages and documents automatically on behalf of the people involved, with full version control and history. A HIMS is also used to manage the work and integrate it with organizational strategy/tactics, via separation into "levels of control". Active processes can be changed on-the-fly as people agree on next steps for the work.

Human Interaction Management has given rise to a top-down business process management methodology that addresses the most pressing needs of the modern enterprise - to acquire the agility necessary for survival in a globalized, wired marketplace, while simultaneously complying with statutory regulations and company policies, all within a safely controlled management hierarchy. This methodology is known as Goal-Oriented Organization Design (GOOD).

The main focus of HIM is currently on the integration of organizational management with human work practices, in order to implement executive objectives, improve human productivity, and fulfil requirements for compliance. HIM is also very useful for integrating business and IT, for instance in areas such as SOA governance. However, HIM has application beyond the improvement of organizational efficiency, since it provides a rich set of patterns for structuring and managing collaborative work that are also finding application in spheres such as social/political negotiation, law enforcement, crisis management and healthcare.

The benefit from using a HIMS to implement HIM is that it provides workplace software that understands human work patterns, and supports the inherent spontaneity of the human mind. The way people really work is via interactions, which lead to commitments, which lead in turn to actions. IT in the 20th century was based on information processing. The HIMS is a new kind of IT solution for the 21st century, based on commitment processing.

What is HIM For?

• Strategic and tactical management and decision-making

• Work processes that cross organizational boundaries

• Work processes requiring negotiations and commitments

• Work processes requiring human judgement to determine next steps

• Work processes that change their structure and participants as work progresses

• Where an audit trail of commitments and actions is required to demonstrate management and regulatory compliance

• Work dealing with radical change, such as catastrophe or new competitive threat

Typical Situations Where HIM Is Uniquely Suited

• SOA governance

• Opening new markets

• Establishing new trading partners

• Mergers and acquisitions

• Innovation programmes

• Projects undertaken to grow the business

• Capital expenditure management

• Management-level SOX compliance

• Auditing

• Contract negotiations

• Marketing campaigns

• Special events

• Promotions

• Complex sales proposals

• Managing requests for proposals

• Research

• New product/service development

• Managing large teams of engineers and/or software developers

• Case management

• Customer self-service

• Disaster, problem and issue resolution

• Crime solving

• Legal or military action

• Construction

• Collaborative learning projects

More Information

A HIM Quick Reference Card

Human Interaction Management Web Site

Typical Comment

In today's developed economies, the significant nuances in employment concern interactions: the searching, monitoring, and coordinating required to manage the exchange of goods and services. Since 1997, extensive McKinsey research on jobs in many industries has revealed that globalization, specialization, and new technologies are making interactions far more pervasive in developed economies. Currently, jobs that involve participating in interactions rather than extracting raw materials or making finished goods account for more than 80 percent of all employment in the United States. And jobs involving the most complex type of interactions - those requiring employees to analyze information, grapple with ambiguity, and solve problems - make up the fastest-growing segment.
This shift toward more complex interactions has dramatic implications for how companies organize and operate.
The shift from transactional to tacit interactions requires companies to think differently about how to improve performance - and about their technology investments. Moreover, the rise of tacit occupations opens up the possibility that companies can again create capabilities and advantages that rivals can't easily duplicate.
"The Next Revolution in Interactions"
McKinsey Quarterly

Today's greatest business challenge is to offer total experiences that delight your customers, experiences that exceed their expectations. It's no longer viable to offer commodities, or just the best products or services. Companies must now open a two-way dialog with their customers in order to meet their needs throughout the consumption process, for they don't want your products and services in and of themselves, they want solutions to their needs. In today's fiercely competitive business environment, you must provide the complete experience that delights each and every customer. If you don't do that, you won't be able to compete for the future. If you do do that, you will need the support of the Human Interaction Management System, the breakthrough that changes the rules of business, the breakthrough that changes your relationships with both almighty customers, and the trading partners you must band together with to meet the needs of your present and future customers.
Foreword to "Human Interactions"
Peter Fingar, co-author of "Business Process Management - The Third Wave",
 

Process-based technology that understands the needs of people and supports the inherent "spontaneity" of the human mind is the next logical step, and we might be tempted to name this potential paradigm shift "Knowledge Intensive Business Processes." KIBPM falls into two main categories, which will probably merge over time, and the vendor that recognizes that potential will steal a march on the others. At the simplest level we have case management, and secondly, we have Human Interaction Management. I doubt there are many BPM products on the market today which will be able to meet this seismic shift in requirements - certainly those that rely on BPEL and SOA won't; what's more, any that have been in the market for longer than five years will need radical surgery to meet the coming challenge.
"Why Workflow Sucks"
Jon Pyke, Chair of the Workflow Management Coalition