Organizations face a widespread and often hidden crisis of their own making, one that can no longer be ignored: People Debt.
People debt is the implied costs and risks of neglecting the human aspect of agility and forgoing the necessary investments in people and Human Resources (HR) topics.
People debt is often dismissed (e.g., people development) or not recognized as an impediment (e.g., MBOs that undermine innovation, meritocracy with pay-for-performance practices that lead to inequality and lack of opportunities). But if ignored, people debt will erode the organization’s resilience and survivability, and significantly, slow down your agile transformation.
Tackling people debt takes an unwavering focus on people. Even though we have many invested parties on a Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) Agile Release Train (ART), no one has the explicit mandate and full authorization to have people as their prime focus. We need a people authority to ensure the ART has a robust people runway that will:
- Accelerate business agility
- Increase creativity and innovation
- Improve transformation lead time and success
- Boost employee engagement and experience
- Build a company fit for the human economy
The people runway consists of two things. The combined strengths, abilities, skills, and experiences of the current workforce. And its ability to fully utilize and leverage those for smooth and continuous delivery on current and emerging business initiatives. It takes a clear commitment and continual investment to build and maintain a people runway that will take your agile transformations to the next level and ensure your organization’s continued success.
And the time to invest is now. The future of work belongs those who are not afraid to take on the challenge!
If you read it until here, congrats! Here’s the link to Fabiola’s upcoming course in Agile HR practitioner.
If you want an extra read on Agile in Human Resources, check this Fabiola’s article: “Zoom doesn’t equal Agile”
Fabiola Eyholzer
Agile HR Fabiola EyholzerFabiola Eyholzer, the Co-Founder of Just Leading Solutions, a renowned transformation consultancy for HR Agility, is a pioneer and recognized thought leader in Lean-Agile HR. As a seasoned Management Consultant and Executive Advisor, she advises enterprises to achieve Business Agility through a modern people approach.