I find the role of psychology in HR fascinating, and I’m excited that others are beginning to do the same.

Understanding how a person is made is invaluable to me as a human resources practitioner.

Sure, there are tactical things HR people do, but much of the job is about influencing people. So, there’s a conversation to be had about how HR practitioners, managers and leaders can leverage psychology to make change; to create a vibrant culture.

How do organizations make change and ensure their culture is rich and thriving? By partnering with people. Doing that means we need to learn how they engage and how their psyches are formed. We need to ask, “How do people make decisions,” and “What influences them?”

This is the stuff great cultures are made of.

My particular focus has been on Health Psychology, which examines how to help people change their behavior and decide to become healthier humans. One fascinating theory about decision-making explains that there are different phases a person goes through when making a decision.

Basically, it isn’t just about taking action. A person needs influence or perhaps even a different skill to change their perspective and then their actions. Where your influence on that person begins all depends on where they are in their process.

For example, if you want your father to quit smoking, it isn’t ideal to just walk in and say, “Dad, you need to stop smoking, and here’s the patch.” You’d be better off responding to where he’s at in that journey. So, when he notes “I’m always out of breath these days,” or “Wow, my teeth seem awfully yellow,” you could suggest how his lungs would heal so he could breath more easily and teeth would be less yellow if he considered smoking less. That’s the sweet spot of helping him change his behavior, focusing on the positive aspects of the change first.

Translating this process to business is where I think it gets fascinating.

Let’s say you’re trying to influence an entrepreneur to reorganize her business in order to optimize the key talents of 3 to 4 leaders. If it hasn’t yet occurred to her, you have to start by influencing her to think about the positives. You might say, “You seem to be spending a lot of time on accounting. Think of the time you’d be able to contribute toward visioning if you didn’t?”

Again, you can’t jump right to action, or things will never change.

Understanding just this one psychological theory about how people make decisions changed the way I approach HR entirely. Things like that—and exactly how hard behavioral change is without it—inspired me to do a deep dive into psychology.

A second element that’s been insightful and inspiring is the subject of mutli-cultural psychology and counseling. It’s all about the critical need for understanding; that how you were raised is completely different from how someone else was raised…and how those differences mean that you each look at the world through a different lens.

I know, it doesn’t sound revolutionary. But, it is.

How we respond to the world is directly linked to our history and the influences that were around us in our youth (and even still).

Whether it was socioeconomic influences, a wonderful teacher, your race, sexual orientation, or whether you’re a minority or not, all influence the views you have and who you are when you step into the office each and every day.

As an HR professional, I see that as critical. It’s important to be humble about not knowing everything—that people come in with completely different views. It opens the door for a richer working environment because if you enter the room with that understanding, you’ll connect with people on a deeper level and build yourself a brilliant culture.

Being attuned to everyone’s different upbringings, and having compassion for them will enable you to build an amazing company that’s inclusive, drives business impact, and is successful. Isn’t that what we’re all seeking?

That, and I’d like to suggest something else.

I’d say it’s learning about yourself, too; having the curiosity to learn about who you are, and how your upbringing plays a role in who you are today, and to really delve into that.

Then, when you go into a work environment, you’re bringing that understanding of yourself into the building. This awareness isn’t just important for the HR department, but for managers and leaders—all employees, really. Because by understanding the basic fact that everyone’s walking into the room with their different influences means we can start asking questions such as: “How would you feel inspired?”, and “How do you want to contribute to the organization?”, and “What motivates you to do your best and feel most productive?”

Everyone will have a different answer to each of those questions.

It all springs from who they truly are. If you can unearth that truth in your organization, you’ll uncover an amazing, complex kaleidoscope.And, once you see and appreciate that kaleidoscope, you’ll learn how to use it and really build an incredible company. It comes down to combining all the colors, and understanding how they work together.

It’s been really rewarding for me. But, I think you have to go in with a level of openness to learn. It’s about staying curious about how we were all raised; about considering our advantages and disadvantages, and how we see the world as different from each other.

If you understand those things, you’re on your way to being a better human. And if you’re a better human, you’ll certainly be on your way to being an amazing leader. Think of how that would impact your workplace. Perhaps even the world.

Ready for more?

Here are two great books I’ve found helpful as I dig into HR and psychology focused on influencing behavior and communication:

• The theory I mentioned on decision-making and the book by Prochaska and DiClemente is called the Transtheoretical Model. If you are struggling to help a leader change behavior, understanding what stage of change they are in is enormously helpful.

* To learn more about how to communicate to influence others and find common ground, check out Nonviolent Communication.