Breaking Free From Organisational Debt: Naming It and Tackling It
Have you ever felt like the weight of unfinished tasks and unresolved issues is slowing everything down? Whether you’re running a business, leading a team, or simply trying to keep your life on track, there’s a concept that perfectly captures this reality: Organizational Debt.
I first came across this term in a tweet from Scott Belsky. It stopped me in my tracks:
“Organizational debt is the accumulation of changes and decisions leaders should have made but didn’t.”
The phrase comes from Steve Blank, a tech entrepreneur who borrowed it from the world of coding. In tech, technical debt describes the shortcuts taken to deliver a product faster—choices that inevitably lead to problems down the road. Blank saw the same phenomenon in organizations, coining the term organizational debt in 2015.
“Organizational debt is all the people/culture compromises made to ‘just get it done,’” Blank wrote.
And that’s the tension so many of us face. We’re in a rush to deliver, meet deadlines, or avoid tough conversations. But those compromises stack up, and sooner or later, they come back to bite us.
What Is Organizational Debt?
At its core, organizational debt represents everything that should have been done to maintain peak health and efficiency, but wasn’t.
Processes become messy. Decisions get postponed. Tough conversations are avoided. And as time goes on, the cumulative weight of these unresolved issues slows progress and erodes trust.
Think of it like a financial debt. At first, it feels manageable. But over time, the interest compounds. Left unchecked, organizational debt leads to a culture of frustration, inefficiency, and burnout.
The Personal Parallels
Here’s the thing: organizational debt isn’t just a workplace concept. It applies to life, too.
In our personal lives, we accumulate “life debt” when we avoid addressing what really matters. Maybe it’s failing to have that hard conversation with a loved one, neglecting our health, or ignoring financial issues. Every compromise adds to the weight we carry.
Like organizational debt, life debt doesn’t just disappear. It grows until we confront it.
Why Naming It Matters
The power of the term “organizational debt” lies in its ability to make the invisible visible. Once you name the problem, you can start to address it.
Without naming it, it’s easy to dismiss those unresolved issues as “just the way things are.” But when you see it for what it is—a debt—you can begin to strategize a way out.
The Cost of Avoidance
So why do we let organizational debt accumulate?
We are never living or working in ideal circumstances. There’s never enough time, or money, or bandwidth. So we compromise.
But when we compromise on the –
same things…
long enough…
without reckoning with the cost…
we accrue debt in the overall ‘organizational landscape’ in which we’re operating – in life or work.
We might be compromising on doing the hard work of standardising and documenting operating procedures, or compromising on doing the hard work of getting organized in our life admin so we stop missing bills that are still going to that old address.
Often, it comes down to three things:
Speed Over Stability: We prioritize quick wins over sustainable processes.
Fear of Disruption: We avoid rocking the boat with hard decisions.
Overwhelm: We feel there’s no time or money to fix the underlying issues, so we patch them instead.
But avoiding these tough decisions only creates more work and stress in the long run.
How to Pay It Down
If organisational debt is weighing you down, here’s how to start addressing it:
Name the Problem: Recognize where compromises have been made and what’s piling up.
Start Small: Tackle one area at a time. Whether it’s fixing outdated processes or having that overdue conversation, small wins build momentum.
Engage Others: Organizational debt is rarely a one-person fix. Gather your team—or family—and get everyone invested in the solution.
Prioritise Long-Term Health: Shift your focus from short-term gains to building sustainable systems and cultures.
The Opportunity on the Other Side
The good news? Tackling organisational debt isn’t just about eliminating pain points. It’s about unlocking potential.
When you clear the clutter, you create space for innovation, trust, and growth. Teams function better. Relationships deepen. Progress accelerates.
It’s not easy, and it won’t happen overnight. But the effort is worth it.
Where to Begin
The first step to addressing organisational debt—whether in your workplace or your personal life—is to have the courage to name it.
As I’ve reminded myself many times, the difference between where we are and where we want to be is often the painful decisions we’re unwilling to make.
Sometimes it is within our power to make those painful decisions all by ourselves. But sometimes we need wider buy-in. Changing culture and processes in an organization, or a family, is not typically going to happen most successfully by the actions of one person. You need collective action.
And that start with discussing the problem.
And that starts with naming the problem.
The sooner we make those decisions to address the problem, the sooner we can move forward with clarity, purpose, and freedom from the weight of unresolved issues.
So, what’s one area of organisational or personal debt you can start paying down today?