For those of you who know me well, will know that I am a massive fan of musicals! Recently Kiran Seeley and I went to see Hadestown. I’d heard so many good things about it, but I wasn’t expecting to leave still thinking about it days later. There’s a moment where Orpheus talks about showing people how the world could be, rather than simply accepting it for the way that it is. It wasn’t really the music or the storyline that stayed with me, it was that simple idea. It made me realise how easy it is for all of us to become comfortable with the world we’ve always known, without ever stopping to ask whether it could be different.
I think procurement is a little like that. We all have processes we’ve inherited, suppliers we’ve worked with for years, ways of negotiating that have become second nature and organisations that often resist change because “that’s how we’ve always done it.” The longer we’re in a role, the easier it becomes to accept those things as fixed. Yet when you look back over the biggest improvements in procurement over the last twenty years, very few of them came from people accepting the status quo. They came from people who questioned it. Someone challenged a process, looked at a problem from a different angle or imagined a better way of working, and that mindset is what moved organisations forward.
It’s probably one of the reasons I still love training as much as I did when I first started. People often assume that the goal is simply to help someone pass a CIPS exam, but for me that’s always been the outcome rather than the purpose. The best part is watching someone suddenly see things differently. You can almost see the penny drop when they realise negotiation isn’t really about tactics, procurement isn’t just about buying things and stakeholder management isn’t about keeping everyone happy. It’s about understanding people, influencing decisions and having the confidence to think differently.
As AI continues to evolve, I’ve found myself thinking about this even more. There has been so much discussion about the skills that technology will replace, but perhaps the more interesting question is what it won’t replace. The ability to build trust, to read a situation, to ask better questions, to challenge assumptions and to bring people with you through change are all deeply human skills. If anything, I think they’ll become even more valuable over the next few years.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve been developing some new programmes at Business Academy Online. They focus less on the technical side of procurement and much more on the human side.
Our Human Forecasting course explores how we read behaviour, recognise emotion and build trust. Our Stakeholder Management programme is about influencing without authority and navigating difficult relationships. Our Behavioural Negotiation Masterclass looks beyond traditional negotiation tactics and focuses on the psychology behind why people make the decisions they do. If you would like more information and a bespoke quote for these courses please send us an enquiry HERE!
Watching Hadestown reminded me that real change often starts with someone painting a picture of what could be, rather than accepting what already exists. I think that’s true in organisations, in procurement and probably in life as well. The people who make the biggest difference are usually the ones who are prepared to challenge old thinking, stay curious and help others see possibilities they hadn’t considered before.
I’d love to know what you think. Have you ever had a book, a film or even a theatre show that completely changed the way you looked at your work? I’d be genuinely interested to hear your story.