Thread by @DavidCrandall

1/ Social Debt impacts business as much as, if not more than, technical debt.

That’s a big claim for a term that I’ve not heard discussed much so let's unpack this.

Note: This is the first in my Lessons Learned sharing as encouraged by numerous people last week.

2/ Let’s start by defining technical debt, the idea of which is not new to anyone in the tech industry even though the term might be.

3/ Technical Debt is the implied cost associated with choosing an easy but sub-optimal solution now instead of an optimal solution that would take longer to implement.

TL;DR version: The headache caused by using quick fixes instead of taking the time to do it right.

4/ Technical Debt can manifest as financial cost, longer timelines, fragile code, etc. Those who worked in IT or tech related careers have repeatedly seen the impact of quick fixes implemented due to poor decision making.

5/ Social Debt is the implied cost associated with choosing sub-optimal personal interactions instead of investing in people for long term optimal solutions.

TL;DR version: The costs of sacrificing respect and human dignity to achieve other goals.

6/ Social Debt might manifest in the form of dictatorship leaders, not protecting employees from harsh customers or business groups (way too common), bad communication, or numerous other forms which leave an individual potentially resentful towards another.

7/ Technical Debt can exist in organizations where people are trying their hardest but have just made bad or uninformed decisions.

Social Debt exists in organizations with deeper problems. People stop trying because they feel mistreated.

Social Debt is harder to recover from.

8/ A helpful mechanism for thinking about Social Debt is to consider that between any two individuals exists the concept of a social bank account. Each interaction is either a deposit or a withdrawal of funds.

9/ Encouragement and working towards successful goals is a deposit into the social bank account. Bad communications are withdrawals.

Harsh interactions like "throwing someone under the bus" or berating individuals publicly are major withdrawals.

10/ Provided that our social bank account has enough "funds", the occasional withdrawal does not do long term damage to the relationship.

Even the most well-intentioned individuals make occasional withdrawals. We’re still human after all.

11/ But when individuals or organizations make repeated withdrawals they may find themselves in the red. Once in the red, each interaction brings with it an associated social NSF fee. Even a wrong look gets deducted as a major withdrawal because the account is in such disrepair.

12/ When dealing with Social Debt, these NSF charges come in the form of excessive timelines, gossip, unwillingness to excel, etc. NSF fees increase the more an employee feels they have little recourse or support to correct the situation that caused the Social Debt.

13/ I regularly see projects where verbally abusive business users are given the freedom to mistreat entire IT project groups.

The reason this freedom is given is these abusive individuals are often seen by leadership as “people who can get things done with IT”.

14/ Regularly, developers on these projects tell me they artificially increase their timelines because they're tired of being treated poorly by these caustic individuals. The mindset being that if they're going to be treated poorly, they're going to make them pay for it.

15/ The temptation might be to punish the employees charging social NSF fees. However, when numerous individuals and groups are doing this, punishing them is only addressing the symptom, not the root of the problem.

The problem will persist.

16/ Until leaders learn to look for and identify Social Debt as a real problem it will continue to cost them large amounts of time and resources while fooling themselves into thinking they have the right people in charge.

17/ The take-away here is to look deeper. If you’re in leadership and continually not looking to increase systematic efficiencies in your processes, is it possible you’re missing bigger opportunities?

18/ The cost required to identify sources of Social Debt is minuscule when compared with the time it costs!

That’s not an overstatement.

I have been on multiple projects which took OVER A YEAR longer than needed as individuals retaliated for being treated poorly.

19/ Question to Leaders -

Are you letting members of leadership at any level be abusive to others because you have believed it actually increases timelines?

(Hint: It doesn’t)

20/ If you don’t address it, you’re inviting your people to manage Social Debt on their own. And without your participation, it’s not likely to be a solution you like.

21/ Question to everyone else -

If you’re repeatedly in scenarios where Social Debt is heaped upon you, should you consider going elsewhere?

Is the impact on your career and personal life worth it?

22/ If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU!!!

I’d love to kno what other examples of Social Debt have you seen in the work place.

/end of thread