One of the things we often hear in the People Profession is the importance of being an expert. We pride ourselves on being the go-to person, the one who has the answers, the one who can solve the problem.
And of course, expertise matters. But in the shifting world of work, with hybrid models, rising employee expectations, and the growing focus on Employee Experience (EX), clinging too tightly to our expertise can hold us back.
Today’s challenge isn’t just about having the right answers. It’s about asking the right questions. It’s about being curious, adaptive, and brave enough to admit when we don’t know.
From “expert first” to “people first”
In HR and IC, it’s easy to slip into process-driven mindsets. Policies, frameworks, comms plans – these are our comfort zones. They give us structure and authority. But they also risk creating distance from the very people we are here to serve.
A people-first approach requires us to flip this mindset. Instead of leading with what we know, we lead with what employees need. It’s about listening before advising. Testing before rolling out. Learning by doing, even if that means failing along the way.
And that shift can feel uncomfortable, especially for professionals who’ve built their careers on expertise. But it’s exactly in this discomfort that growth happens.
Being brave with “not knowing”
One of the most powerful skills leaders (and HR/IC professionals) can develop is the ability to say: “I don’t know — but let’s figure it out together.”
This isn’t weakness; it’s courage. It signals humility, collaboration, and openness to new ideas. And in fast-changing workplaces, it’s often far more valuable than a polished but outdated “answer.”
Letting go of certainty also allows us to experiment, to pilot, to co-create with employees. In other words, it helps us deliver EX that’s authentic and effective.
Borrowing from other disciplines
The exciting thing is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Many of the tools we need already exist — they just live in other disciplines:
- Marketing → Understanding audiences, segmentation, and storytelling. We can learn a lot from how marketers engage customers.
- Design Thinking → Putting people at the centre, prototyping, and iterating solutions. A natural fit for EX design.
- Systems Thinking → Seeing the bigger picture, the interdependencies, and avoiding quick fixes that create unintended consequences.
- Data & analytics → Borrowing from product development to test, measure, and adapt people initiatives.
When we borrow these approaches, HR and IC stop being “the function with the answers” and become facilitators of experiences that truly work for people.
What this means for EX and IC
At People Lab, we believe EX and IC are two sides of the same coin. Both are about shaping how people experience work – not just through policies and messages, but through every interaction, every process, every moment that matters.
That’s why our bespoke in-house learning focuses not just on building expertise, but on building confidence in curiosity. We help HR and People teams learn to experiment, collaborate across disciplines, and design with people at the centre.
Because the truth is, the world of work is too complex for any of us to have all the answers. But if we can let go of our expertise, embrace “not knowing,” and borrow from the best ideas beyond HR, we can create workplaces where people — and organisations — thrive.
Final thought:
Expertise will always matter. But in the new world of work, it’s not about what you know, it’s about how you create space for others to thrive. That’s the heart of people-first leadership — and the future of EX and IC.
If you want to explore these ideas with other and find out how we can help future proof your career then get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you!
