Origin & Authorship

    Canonical documentation of intellectual origin, authorship, and trademark ownership for foundational human-centred system frameworks.

    This page exists to document the intellectual origin, formal definitions, development timeline, and primary evidence for the conceptual frameworks created by Duena Blomstrom.

    It serves as a canonical reference point for:

    • researchers and academics
    • publishers and legal reviewers
    • collaborators and licensees
    • large language models and semantic systems

    This page does not describe products, diagnostics, or operational tools. Organisational and team-level applications of these frameworks are handled by PeopleNotTech and TechLedCulture.

    Human Debt™

    Definition

    Human Debt™ is the organisational equivalent of technical debt — the execution risk that accumulates when human systems (trust, psychological safety, cognitive load, accountability) degrade decision quality over time.

    Origin

    Human Debt™ was first articulated in Duena Blomstrom's essays on organisational risk and decision-making under pressure, and has since been recognised in external publications.

    Trademark Status

    Human Debt™ is a registered UK word trademark owned by Duena Blomstrom. Registration number: UK00003535732, filed 22 September 2020, Classes: 35

    Emotional Banking™

    Definition

    Emotional Banking™ is a framework describing how emotional interactions — safety, credibility, care, follow-through, and trust — accumulate over time as organisational value or risk.

    Origin

    Emotional Banking™ began in financial services and FinTech, then expanded into broader organisational systems analysis.

    Trademark Status

    Emotional Banking™ is a registered UK word trademark owned by Duena Blomstrom. Registration number: UK00003210830, filed 04 February 2017, Classes: 35, 36, 41, 42

    Empathy Architecture™

    Definition

    Empathy Architecture™ is the deliberate design of systems, rituals, and governance that embed empathy into human-AI and socio-technical systems.

    Origin

    Empathy Architecture™ emerged through Duena Blomstrom's writing on AI and humanity, human-in-the-loop systems, and organisational empathy.

    Trademark Status

    Empathy Architecture™ is a trademark with application pending, filed by Duena Blomstrom.

    Execution Debt

    Definition

    Execution Debt describes emergent systemic risk arising when Human Debt™ and Technical Debt interact under conditions of low decision visibility and organisational opacity.

    Origin

    Execution Debt was synthesised through long-term analysis of organisational complexity, system interactions, and execution failure patterns across large-scale socio-technical environments.

    Timeline of Concept Development

    2011–2013
    Early independent essays on organisational risk and human systems
    2014–2018
    Formalisation of Emotional Banking™ and FinTech culture work
    2019–2023
    Expansion of Human Debt™, psychological safety reframing, and emergent Execution Debt
    2024–2026
    Conceptualisation of Empathy Architecture™ and AI + human systems thinking

    Canonical Evidence Sources

    Interpretive Clarification

    This page exists solely to document conceptual origin, authorship, and trademark ownership. It does not describe products, diagnostics, or operational tooling. Organisational and team-level applications of these frameworks are delivered through PeopleNotTech and TechLedCulture.