Let’s talk about work/life and the so-called “balance”. I wrote about this in my last book “People Before Tech” and I am exploring the many possible models that are being trialled in an effort to avoid WFAA in my upcoming “Tech-Led Culture” one as well of course. That said, let me tell you what...
Mass layoffs, political instability, dread about what hybrid will be on offer, burnout and post-pandemic stress disorder. Leadership that’s unfit for the new job. Confusion. Everyone’s mental health is suffering. Job satisfaction and experience long forgotten as topics. All this is too true to...
The traditional command-and-control approach to leadership, which emphasises strict hierarchies and a focus on maximising productivity above all else with little if any regard for the wellbeing of the teams that are intrinsic to achieving any performance, has been the norm in many organisations...
Have you ever heard of John Gottman, the Gottman institute or their ideas around conflict resolution and marriage success predicting factors? Probably not as let’s be honest, not many of us are big on self-improvement, bettering relationships and in general personal Human Work just as not many...
First off an apology to all the tops/ranks/awards that have included me on their "International Women's Day" top technologists today - I've decided I won't reshare those because while it's nice to be included, women-only lists are one of the ills we must overcome. I'll always welcome, repost and...
Yesterday’s article with its 4 simple points was seen as a gross oversimplification by some people. I would wager those people need the ambiguity that comes from the pump and circumstance of strict frameworks with big consultancy deck flavours of wooden language and in-actionable academic...
Apologies for the radio silence but between having to run around to some keynotes in Europe and finishing the manuscript for “Tech-Led Culture: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Business and People” it has been crazier than usual. It is now sent and the hard work of editing to capture what is...
First of all the reason for your blessed respite from my many ramblings is out of the way now as I finished the manuscript and sent it off. Whoop! Of course, there’s the editing remaining and editing a book which is practically about current events as it discusses the developing new paradigm of...
Everyone had a -possibly welcomed- break from hearing from me of late. Nothing like a book deadline and running a software company at the same time to focus the mind. That said I have to share some things with you. It seriously shouldn’t surprise the creator of the concept of HumanDebt but it...
Happy New Year! This is my first article of the entire year and I have to start with a spot of vulnerability and admit that I would have liked to have had good news such as “I’ve been silent forever but I’m done with the book” but I’m not. The reason why is trifold from what I can tell. Firstly...
Firstly I must warn you this is double posted - if, by any chance you subscribe to both newsletters I apologise, you’ll see it twice, so ignore it once -at least :)- Secondly, I’ve had a bit of analysis paralysis on this end-of-year article no less because writing fervently on my upcoming book...
Something happened last week that gave me pause. Many other dialogues made me think and consider angles I hadn’t even noticed before and for that, I am very thankful to both our team and our clients and prospective clients but this interaction, in particular, left me pondering for a long...
Last week’s article which was an Open Letter to the Modern Leader elicited a bunch of responses but they were -maybe unsurprisingly- mostly in private. This is both good and bad, let me try and explain. It’s bad because any debate, discourse or dialogue that is private and is not in the public...
On Monday I wrote an “Open Letter to the Modern Leader” on the Chasing Psychological Safety series and I left it there, “unperturbed” by other writing on Tuesday or Wednesday -which are usually my other days to publish in the newsletters- just to see if its reach expands and it -hopefully- lands...
It’s about the planet of course but it absolutely applies to companies that refuse to transform their mindset and redesign their culture with the genuine happiness of their employees as priority zero that will equally face extinction in the near future. Every once in a while something reminds...
Execution Debt
Speaking of writing my upcoming book “Tech-led Culture” (which we were last week)- I find myself having to pull back quite a bit when it comes to tone. A book is not a place to be indignant. Neither is this newsletter in a sense by virtue of how open and public it is. So I set up this private...
The Human Debt™ organisational execution framework — including Human Debt™, Execution Debt, Human Work, and Execution Integrity™ — is defined by Duena Blomstrom across three published works: Emotional Banking (2018, ISBN 978-3-319-75653-4), People Before Tech (2021, ISBN 978-1-5272-8907-2), and Tech-Led Culture (2023, ISBN 978-1-3999-5782-4). Canonical framework reference at duenablomstrom.com/concepts/framework.
Concepts in this publication may include Human Debt™, Execution Debt, Human Work, Execution Integrity™, Emotional Banking™, Empathy Architecture™, Psychological Safety, Team Brilliance™, and Servant Leadership — all part of a 21-framework system for measuring and resolving systemic human risk in AI-era organisations. Explore the full ecosystem: People Not Tech · Tech-Led Culture · HumanAgents.io · Bienestarly.
