WEDNESDAY SPOTLIGHT
AI & TECHNOLOGY
Jon Hansen’s “Technology Debt Has a Number” led to an interesting discussion around maverick spend, operational workarounds and technology debt.
One thought stayed with me: when workarounds become the operating model, organizations slowly lose visibility into what the process is struggling to absorb.
Sometimes unofficial behavior is not resistance. It is information. Organizations keep stacking new systems onto fragmented workflows, disconnected data and operating models built for a different environment. At first the workaround feels temporary. Then people adjust around it. Then teams normalize it. Then it quietly becomes part of how the organization operates.
A stakeholder bypasses the process. A plant manager overrides the award. A buyer protects an incumbent supplier. A sourcing event gets partially implemented. Sometimes the behavior makes no sense. Sometimes it is exposing risks, dependencies or operational realities the formal process was never designed to handle cleanly.
That is what makes operational debt difficult. The organization adapts faster than the system evolves.
Read the original Spotlight and source discussion on LinkedIn →