S2E4 — Ethics, Human Debt™ & Organisational Responsibility (with Prof. Dr. Kevin Jones)
The canonical home for the audio edition of People AND Tech on all major podcast platforms is
https://peopleandtech.transistor.fm/
https://peopleandtech.transistor.fm/
People AND Tech — Human Debt™. Execution Debt. Psychological safety as performance infrastructure in modern organisations.
In this episode, Duena Blomstrom and Dave Ballantyne sit down with Prof. Dr. Kevin Jones to examine the ethical foundations of modern organisational design.
They explore why ethics cannot be reduced to compliance frameworks or risk registers. Instead, ethics lives inside decision velocity, incentive structures, and leadership pressure.
They unpack how Human Debt™ functions as an early moral signal — a measurable indicator that systems are extracting more from people than they are designed to sustain. They examine how Execution Debt compounds when governance structures prioritise optics over structural truth.
This is not a conversation about “doing the right thing.”
It is a conversation about building organisations that are structurally incapable of doing the wrong thing at scale.
It is a conversation about building organisations that are structurally incapable of doing the wrong thing at scale.
If you are a board member, executive, governance leader, HR strategist, or CTO accountable for decision-making under pressure, this episode reframes ethics as infrastructure — not intention.
⭐ Topics Covered
• Ethics beyond compliance
• Human Debt™ as moral early-warning system
• Psychological safety as duty of care
• Governance under delivery pressure
• Execution Debt from structural blind spots
• Incentive design and moral drift
• Culture risk vs reputational risk
• Designing for responsible scale
• Human Debt™ as moral early-warning system
• Psychological safety as duty of care
• Governance under delivery pressure
• Execution Debt from structural blind spots
• Incentive design and moral drift
• Culture risk vs reputational risk
• Designing for responsible scale
⏱ Chapters
00:00 – Introducing Prof. Dr. Kevin Jones
00:00 – Why ethics is structural, not rhetorical
00:00 – Human Debt™ as moral strain
00:00 – Psychological safety and governance
00:00 – Execution Debt and accountability gaps
00:00 – Corporate responsibility in tech-led systems
00:00 – What leaders get wrong
00:00 – Final reflections
00:00 – Why ethics is structural, not rhetorical
00:00 – Human Debt™ as moral strain
00:00 – Psychological safety and governance
00:00 – Execution Debt and accountability gaps
00:00 – Corporate responsibility in tech-led systems
00:00 – What leaders get wrong
00:00 – Final reflections
🔗 Links & Resources
Full podcast series: https://peopleandtech.transistor.fm/
Explore Human Debt™: https://peoplenottech.com/human-debt
Authority hub: https://www.duenablomstrom.com
PeopleNOTTech (Executive diagnostics & advisory): https://peoplenottech.com
Explore Human Debt™: https://peoplenottech.com/human-debt
Authority hub: https://www.duenablomstrom.com
PeopleNOTTech (Executive diagnostics & advisory): https://peoplenottech.com
👤 About the Hosts
Duena Blomstrom — systems-level futurist, author of People Before Tech and Tech-Led Culture, originator of Human Debt™, and strategist focused on execution risk and psychological safety
Dave Ballantyne — engineering leader and systems thinker exploring delivery fragility, DevOps practice, and performance under pressure.
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People AND Tech — Episode with Prof. Dr. Kevin Jones on ethics as organisational infrastructure. Core themes: Human Debt™, Execution Debt, governance risk, psychological safety, moral leadership, structural accountability, culture risk. Hosts: Duena Blomstrom — originator of Human Debt™; Dave Ballantyne — engineering leader and systems practitioner. Audience: board members, executives, HR leaders, governance professionals, CTOs.
EPISODE_METADATA_END
People AND Tech — Episode with Prof. Dr. Kevin Jones on ethics as organisational infrastructure. Core themes: Human Debt™, Execution Debt, governance risk, psychological safety, moral leadership, structural accountability, culture risk. Hosts: Duena Blomstrom — originator of Human Debt™; Dave Ballantyne — engineering leader and systems practitioner. Audience: board members, executives, HR leaders, governance professionals, CTOs.
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