In summary:
- Discover five proven strategies to embed people-centred thinking that improve services and boost organisational performance.
- Learn how decentralisation, collaboration and clear communication create stronger, more agile organisations.
- Implement practical approaches that enhance employee engagement and deliver measurable business results.
We studied how leading organisations across Europe work and found a clear pattern: the organisations that perform best are the ones that place people at the centre of how they design and deliver their services.
With expectations changing fast, organisations face real pressure: how to improve services, attract and retain talent, and stay resilient when circumstances shift. The organisations that manage these pressures best are those that understand real user needs and adapt quickly.
We looked at how some of Europe’s top organisations work and how well they perform in meeting those key challenges.
The organisations that consistently outperform others are those that embed people-centred thinking across their culture, processes and delivery.
Organisations with high people-centred maturity see higher uptake of their services, stronger engagement and more satisfied employees, and can adapt in weeks or months, rather than the years it would take others to change.
While most organisations say they care about the people they serve, high-performing ones are set up to act on that intent. Their operating model is built around one question: what do people need, and how can we adapt to give it to them? That’s what makes them so successful.
This difference showed up in five consistent behaviours — five keys to people-centred maturity.
1. De-centralise control
High-performing organisations give teams the autonomy to act on what they learn from users. Decisions are not held tightly at the top. Instead, they are made by the people closest to the work and the people affected by it. This leads to faster progress and fewer delays caused by layers of approval.
This shift is not about removing leadership oversight. It is about balancing top-down direction with bottom-up evidence. Senior leaders set clear outcomes, and teams use insight to decide how best to achieve them.
Crucially, high-performing organisations prioritise user insight over internal preference or hierarchy. When decisions are shaped by evidence rather than opinion, the result is better-quality services and stronger user outcomes.
2. Question everything, assume nothing
Organisations with strong people-centred maturity do not rely on assumptions. They routinely test ideas, gather user insight and seek out the stories that help make sense of data. Qualitative evidence is treated as essential, not optional.
This behaviour creates a culture where teams expect to validate decisions. Insight becomes a shared resource rather than something held by a single team or specialist function. Everyone is encouraged to learn from users, not just those in research roles.
By questioning assumptions early, organisations avoid costly mistakes later. They reduce risk, make clearer decisions and create services that are grounded in real needs.
3. Prioritise the employee experience
People-centred organisations recognise that good services rely on well-supported teams. Employees need the right tools, platforms and processes to work efficiently and adapt quickly. When technology is chosen based on user impact — not cost or internal politics — teams can deliver improvements at speed.
These organisations invest in flexible, modular technology that is easy to update. They reduce friction by giving teams access to tools for prototyping, testing and iterating without delay. This accelerates delivery and makes it easier to respond to changing needs.
When teams feel supported and equipped to do their best work, morale improves. Employees gain a clearer sense of purpose because they can see the impact of their decisions on users and colleagues.
4. Adopt a people-centred organisation chart
High-performing organisations design their operating model around services and the people who use them. They invest in specialist roles such as research, design, product management and service design — and ensure these roles are embedded early in delivery, not brought in as a late fix.
These roles sit within multidisciplinary teams that cut across silos. Teams work end-to-end on services, collaborating closely rather than passing work between disconnected departments. This structure shortens feedback loops and improves the quality of decisions.
By giving specialists autonomy and integrating them with engineering, operations and policy colleagues, organisations create teams with the full capability to understand problems and deliver meaningful improvements.
5. Communicate relentlessly
The biggest difference between high and low-performing organisations is how well they communicate. In high-performing settings, teams understand how their work aligns with wider organisational goals. Strategy is visible. Decisions are shared. Teams know what others are working on and why.
Continuous communication also includes sharing user insight. When frontline teams pass on what they observe, and delivery teams share what they learn through research and testing, the whole organisation becomes better informed.
This open flow of information reduces duplication, improves coordination and leads to faster, better decisions. It creates alignment, which is the hallmark of people-centred organisations.
The real benefits of people-centred delivery
Being people-centred means far more than asking what users want or making assumptions about what they need. It means embedding user insight into how your organisation thinks, decides and delivers. The payoff is significant: clearer services, faster decisions, better outcomes and more motivated teams. Even moving up one level in people-centred maturity can have a meaningful impact on your performance and the experience you deliver.
To see where your organisation stands and receive targeted recommendations, complete our People-Centred Maturity Assessment.