Many organizations still treat HR as a problem-solver instead of a growth lever, leading to repeated hiring issues, stalled execution, and unnecessary turnover. In fast-moving markets, unclear roles or weak leadership do not just slow companies down, they cost revenue, delay product delivery, and push top talent out the door. Julianne Prizant, President and Founder of OptiPeople Resources, believes the real test of whether a company can grow comes down to clarity, alignment, and the ability to execute without constant intervention. “When people infrastructure evolves intentionally alongside the business, growth accelerates. When it does not, it stalls,” says Prizant.
Seeing People Infrastructure as a Growth Strategy
Her view of organizational design is rooted in decades examining how talent decisions shape business outcomes, looking beyond structure charts to understand how accountability, decision making, and leadership development influence execution. What many label organization design, she sees through the lens of talent. “Who gets hired, what they’re accountable for, how leaders are supported and developed, and whether there is downstream visibility into the impact and connectivity of everything we do within a business.”
Historically, people functions have been positioned as support, brought in when issues surface, however, this reactivity has limited strategic contribution. But when companies start to build people infrastructure intentionally, she argues, they unlock capacity without necessarily increasing headcount.
Aligning Expectations with Execution
In her work with a client struggling to increase revenue share, Prizant saw leaders attributing failures either to the wrong hire or the wrong hiring decision. Yet neither end of the process told the full story. Growth was not breaking down at the entry or exit points, but in the middle. “Strategy was built without downstream visibility and without understanding the impact. The people system could not support execution as a result.”
Once the organization clarified roles, expectations, and leadership alignment, performance improved while the team remained unchanged. The shift was not driven by what she describes as forcing downstream impact into how work was designed and developed. “Small infrastructure shifts can create outsized impact when they reduce friction and help people make better decisions faster.”
Anchoring Roles and Decision Making
Her approach centres on turning people infrastructure into a business advantage by clarifying ownership. “When people know what they own and how success is measured, performance becomes easier to manage and easier to improve.” Clarity reduces escalation, strengthens accountability, and gives managers practical levers to support performance. The absence of clarity is not only inefficient but costly. Without defined roles and strong decision making frameworks, organizations default to reactive fixes, repeated hiring cycles, and inconsistent expectations.
Developing the Right Capabilities for Growth
If businesses intend to scale, their development priorities must mirror the direction of travel. “If growth depends on speed or innovation or execution, those capabilities should show up in how leaders are developed, not just in job descriptions.” This alignment ensures managers are not only positioned to lead but equipped to do so. Equally, measuring what matters prevents leadership from relying on surface metrics. Engagement scores offer sentiment, but they do not reveal whether an organization is building strength in the areas that unlock performance. Time to productivity, leadership readiness, and retention in critical roles provide sharper indicators. Prizant has seen organizations unlock momentum simply by clarifying these areas, without redesigning compensation or expanding teams.
Reducing Repeated Mistakes Through Systems Thinking
For Prizant, the objective is not simply growth but sustainable growth. That means reducing recurring mistakes whether in hiring, expectation setting, or rapid shifts in strategy when early results disappoint. “You really do need to step back for a second and look at the entire plane. If you think about your car, you have an engine. There is not one piece that is more important than the other. If something is not working right, it is going to rattle and make noise. It is the same thing in a company.” People infrastructure works the same way. Its value comes from interdependency, not isolated fixes.
The companies that avoid repetition and gain momentum are those willing to examine the whole engine, not only the parts that appear noisy at a given moment. People infrastructure is a growth engine when it aligns expectation with execution. Leaders who invest in clarity, equip managers to lead, and design systems with downstream impact in mind are better positioned to scale without unnecessary friction. As businesses integrate technology more deeply into their operations, the demand for strong people systems will only increase.
