One Size Fits No-One.
COPE is a practical framework for thinking about how work works for humans.
It looks at four things that shape how work feels and functions:
Cultural · Organisational · Personal · Environmental
People are different. Organisations are different. Jobs are different.
And the same solution will not work for everyone.
Quiet space
Exactly what I need
Quiet space
Absolutely not
Same idea. Different human.
A quiet space can help one person think and leave another feeling trapped.
A tool that removes a barrier for one person can create one for somebody else.
That doesn’t make either idea wrong.
It means context matters.
COPE helps you look at what is actually happening, rather than reaching for the thing an inclusive workplace is apparently supposed to have.
Things we’ve always done that way
HAS TO BE THIS WAY
Safety. Regulation. Customer needs. Deadlines.
Work that genuinely has to happen in a particular place or at a particular time.
HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY
Processes. Habits. Expectations.
Ways of working that nobody has had much reason to question.
COPE helps you get curious about the difference.
What genuinely needs to stay fixed?
Where is there room for choice?
What works for the people doing the work, while still working for the organisation?
What if there’s more choice than you thought?
THE COPE MODEL
Cultural
The assumptions, norms and unwritten rules around how people are expected to work, communicate and participate.
Organisational
The systems, structures and decisions that shape what actually happens day to day.
Personal
The individual human – their strengths, preferences, experience, capacity and needs.
Environmental
The physical, sensory, digital and practical conditions surrounding the work.
COPE looks across all four because no single perspective tells you everything.
You don’t know best.
Neither may they.
Neither do I.
But we can work it out.
It takes curiosity, compassion and a bit of courage. We keep the humans and the realities of the business in the same conversation.
When people spend less energy navigating work, more of their capacity is available for the work itself.
Retention
Participation
Performance
Management time
That matters to people. It also affects cost, retention and ultimately profitability.
COPE can help create more usable choices, give managers a framework for thinking, reduce unnecessary friction and make it less likely that support only starts after someone has disclosed, struggled or had to ask repeatedly
The best inclusive practice can simply feel like work that works.
And many of the people who benefit may never realise the change was made with accessibility in mind.
Bring COPE into your work
We can use COPE with you.
We can teach your people how to use it.
And in time, you’ll be able to use COPE independently through the book and guided resources.
Working with us can include facilitated conversations, work with managers and teams, and practical workplace or environmental assessment where that would be useful.
COPE(R) was created by Jen Smith
Founder of Those Interesting People.
COPE is a way of thinking, not a set of answers.