First and foremost, this is a mindset that embodies the truth of caring for all people and putting them first. This belief set crosses every strata of our community life, whether private or public.  

All people are customers in a way, with needs for products, services or assistance. The same is true in the government or public arena. Ultimately, all businesses and public organizations must ask the same basic question, “What value are we adding to society?”  You can’t really begin to answer that question without first considering who you serve, as well as the difference you are making in their lives and society as a whole.  In other words: if I didn’t do what I do, what difference would it really make?  

In an increasingly globally-linked economy, private and public organizations are pressed to put priority and resources toward safety, survival, and quality of life.  If you do this well, making profits and meeting public program objectives will follow.  

Constituents: The Ultimate Customers

Business organizations must survive by maintaining profit.  Public organizations are dependent upon sustained government or foundation funding.  Both must effectively serve a customer or consumer base.  Both government and private entities must have effective and continual long-range strategic planning with annual goals and initiatives. These goals must be measured to ensure a people-first vision.   This, and only this, will guarantee financial and/or public funding success.  

  •  Put people first every day. Make sure that processes, procedures and bureaucracy don’t make people ‘numbers’ rather than individuals.  Seek to listen, understand and take action to meet individual needs rather than using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.  
  •  Ensure customer satisfaction.  Customers are always treated with dignity and respect even when circumstances, service needs or the individual personality seem to be more challenging. 
  •  Set long-term goals. Ultimately it’s about you and your organization creating and adding lasting value to individual lives and communities.  

Help Me Help You

Reasonable people may disagree as to the extent public institutions should go to serve the recognizable needs of people.  If there’s a limit to taking care of folks, it’s in partnering with them and providing the tools or resources to help them resolve their issues independently, without creating a prolonged dependency.

Sometimes resources will fall short of what is needed.  Sometimes, just providing reference information is all that is needed. The questions at the end of the day should be, “Have I gone beyond the expected to provide service or assistance that helps people better meet their needs?  Have I performed with the least amount of bureaucracy or intrusion in their life?  Have I added value that they can build upon individually or by networking with others?  Have we partnered together in our efforts while preserving their dignity and respect?”

The People’s Public Affairs

At this point in our history, we are pressed to harness innovation in more challenging and complicated ways than ever before. As we become increasingly globally linked, through technology and in our everyday lives, putting people first and working together is vital to our future.  

We have been judged by some to be too self-indulgent, too materialistic, and lacking the fortitude or vision to make a better world for successive generations. It has been said that our society has lost civility and pits people against one another.  This is seen in tense e-mails, road rage, or demonizing other people who are somehow different.  Still others lament that our society is becoming less self-reliant and too dependent on government to solve every problem in life.  

Successful public organizations will succeed to the extent that their employees listen and respond to their customers, treat client or public program recipients as partners, and strive to create lasting value in the relationship.  This will greatly enhance the chances for the long-term success and survival of our democratic society 

Putting people first, rather than miring them in excessive and exhaustive bureaucracy and regulation, can help foster individual ownership for life’s challenges.  We must encourage people to work together to engage their own creativity and ingenuity.  A people-first focus can also have the exponential benefit of a more self-reliant, innovative and enterprising society with a restored sense of community and civility.

Taking care of folks can make all the difference at home, work or in the community.  Certainly we still have the responsibility to help those who truly cannot help themselves.  But the possibilities are endless if we first focus our service on people by engaging their self-reliance, innovation, spirit, and teamwork.  It begins and ends with people caring for people.  

Dennis Smith has served as a Missouri State Senator for 12 years. He is the President and CEO of Dennis Smith and Associates, LLC and built Missouri Employers Mutual, a multi-million dollar insurance company that became the largest writer of workers compensation insurance in the state of Missouri.