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People debt is killing your innovation efforts

Ever think about why companies keep having to "fix the basics" in HR instead of doing innovative work?

The answer: People Debt

Just like tech debt, People Debt is what happens when you take shortcuts in how you manage & develop talent. Those quick fixes pile up silently until they paralyze you.

Real example: Everyone wants "agile teams" that can solve any problem. Sounds great right? But if you rush to promote agility before clearly defining roles, you create chaos. Its tough to be agile when people don't know where their responsibilities start and end.

Another one from Crystal's time at Canva - hypergrowth hiring without proper onboarding. Sure you hit those aggressive hiring targets.. but new hires feel lost and leave shortly after. What did you actually accomplish?

The tricky part? People Debt rarely feels urgent. You think you've "moved past the basics." But those foundational cracks create friction that eventually grinds everything to a halt.

Want to innovate? Make sure your foundation is solid first.

How to identify people debt

Want to spot People Debt before it crushes your org? Here’s what actually works:

Run a “Brilliance & Blunders” exercise every Friday:

• Have team members share their wins AND failures
• Leaders go first (vulnerability creates safety)
• Watch what patterns emerge in the “blunders”

Do a simple 3-bucket assessment:

1. What’s working well?
2. What’s creating confusion/blockers?
3. What needs immediate fixing?

When Crystal ran this, her team at Sprout Social uncovered:

• Unclear process ownership
• Assumptions about “well-defined” processes that weren’t actually defined
• Performance review friction
• Engagement survey fatigue

Look for these warning signs:

• Rising turnover
• “That’s just how we do it here” responses
• Confusion over who owns what

The key is creating psychological safety to surface these issues. Your team knows where the debt is - they just need permission to name it.

The most debt heavy HR process? Performance reviews

HR leaders - stop writing novels in performance reviews.

Crystal shared how they transformed their performance process. Instead of subjective essays, they now use 5 simple rating-scale questions:

1. “How well did this person consistently achieve their performance targets?” (1-5)
2. “What’s their overall impact on the company/team?” (1-5)
3. “If they told you today they were leaving, would you fight to keep them?” (1-5)
4. “Does this person have an immediate performance problem that needs addressing?”
5. “How well do they demonstrate our values?” (1-5)

The magic? Their system auto-calculates recommended ratings based on these responses. No more manager bias. No more writing novels.

Key benefits:

• Saves managers tons of time
• More objective/consistent ratings
• Clear connection to compensation decisions
• Better data for identifying top performers

Crystal ditched engagement surveys for a better approach

People teams - stop measuring how employees feel. Start measuring what they do.

The reality? Engagement surveys are great at measuring sentiment... but terrible at driving change. Their scores kept declining despite running the same playbook.

So Crystal and her team flipped the script:

Instead of: "How satisfied are you with leadership communication?"
​They now measure: "How often does your leader share transparent updates?"

Instead of: "Do you feel psychologically safe?"
​They measure: "How many times did you speak up in meetings this month?"
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The result? Way more actionable insights about behaviors that actually impact business performance.
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Key learning: Engagement surveys tell you how people feel. Culture surveys tell you what people do.
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And behaviors are what actually move the needle on performance.
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Why she's designing her people team like a great product team

Stop organizing HR in silos. Start thinking like a product team.

Crystal shared a brilliant approach:

Instead of the traditional recruiting COE, L&D COE, DEI COE setup (which creates massive blindspots), they reorganized into cross-functional “squads” focused on the end-to-end employee lifecycle.

The results?

• DEI naturally embedded into every touchpoint vs being a standalone function
• Higher collaboration across previously siloed teams
• Faster problem-solving thru cross-functional OKR squads
• More cohesive employee experience

Key learning: Your org design might be your biggest source of people debt.

Simple example from Crystal: When DEI was a separate COE, other teams had to remember “don’t forget to add DEI to this program.” Now DEI is naturally woven into everything from recruiting to performance mgmt.

Want to try this? Start by:

1. Map your employee lifecycle
2. ID where handoffs create friction
3. Form cross-functional squads around key initiatives
4. Measure collaboration metrics

Traditional HR structures worked for traditional companies. But modern orgs need modern people ops.

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Go listen to the full episode: Spotify | Apple​
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See you next week!