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Eliminate Organisational Debt
Leadership / Advice
Just like technical debt, organisations accumulate structural problems that slow everything down.
What Is Organisational Debt?
- Roles that no longer make sense.
- Processes that exist because "we've always done it that way."
- Teams that overlap or have unclear ownership.
- Decisions that were never revisited.
- Tools nobody likes but everyone tolerates.
Why It Accumulates
- Growth outpaces structure.
- People avoid hard conversations.
- Reorganisation is disruptive, so it gets delayed.
- "It's not broken enough to fix."
How to Address It
- Schedule regular "org reviews" like you schedule tech debt sprints.
- Ask: "If we were starting fresh, would we build it this way?"
- Kill zombie meetings, projects, and roles.
- Make it safe to question existing structures.
The Cost of Ignoring It
Organisational debt is invisible until it's crushing. It shows up as slow decisions, frustrated people, and teams that can't ship.
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