Restructuring won't fix what's wrong

Last week, Canva — the company that turned "make it look professional" into a drag-and-drop job — restructured 1,271 roles. That's 22% of the company. Some jobs cut, some changed, some relocated to Sydney.

There was no crisis. Melanie Perkins told staff that growth had slowed for the first time in a decade. Earlier this year, Canva trimmed its growth forecast from 30% to 20%. Most companies would kill for 20%.

Her diagnosis was "fragmented ownership": work spread across more and more specialized teams. Her conclusion was that "small changes won't be enough." Canva would re-found itself around small, empowered teams.

Here's one thing I know to be true this week: every win adds a layer, and nobody schedules the meeting to take one off.

This is Wonderhell at org scale. Success is the portal, not the destination — and the systems you built to climb become the drag once you get there. A new team for the new product. A new specialist for the new market. A new approval step because one thing went sideways once. Each one is reasonable. Together, they produce a company where everyone is busy and no one owns the outcome.

Careers work the same way. The high-achievers I work with who stall are usually still running every system from the last promotion: every committee seat, every direct report they never really delegated to, and every recurring meeting they started to prove they were serious.

Notice what Perkins didn't do. She didn't wait for the slowdown to become a decline. She called it at 20% growth, while she still had the margin to do it well — and to do it decently. Departing employees get at least six months' salary, a year of healthcare where Canva already provides it, and the chance to apply for a $10,000 grant to start something of their own. However you feel about layoffs, that's a leader who understood the exit is part of the strategy.

Run an ownership test this week. List your three highest-stakes priorities. Next to each, write one name: the single person who wins or loses when it does. If you wrote two names, a team, or a committee, you've found your fragmentation. If you wrote your own name on all three, you've found something worse. You're the layer.

Then ask the Perkins question: will a small change be enough? Be honest. Most of us keep tweaking long after the answer became no.

If you ran the ownership test and didn't love your answers, start with the Wonderhell quiz. A few honest answers now beat another quarter of small changes.

A Few Books I'd Like to Recommend:

​Illuminating Hidden Brilliance: The Power of Multidimensional Leadership in a One-Dimensional World by Tony Martignetti

Most high-performing leaders share a quiet secret: they have been suppressing the very dimensions that make them extraordinary. The pressure to specialize, perform, and fit the mold has created a generation of leaders who are accomplished on paper—and hollow inside. In Illuminating Hidden Brilliance, leadership advisor and keynote speaker Tony Martignetti challenges the myth of specialization and offers a proven framework for leaders ready to stop fragmenting themselves and start integrating all of who they are.

​The Gratitude Shift: An A-to-Z Guide to Reset Your Mindset & Transform Your Life by Jamie Hess

The Gratitude Shift offers a fresh, modern approach to gratitude that moves beyond clichés and into practical, approachable advice readers can use in real life. Built around twenty-six actionable practices, one for each letter of the alphabet, the book’s A-to-Z structure makes it easy to jump in anywhere, revisit often, and use whenever a mindset reset is needed. Each chapter offers a focused gratitude concept through a compelling pull quote with the author's guidance woven throughout, followed by a real-world story from an accomplished guest. Readers are introduced to clear, thoughtful guidance that guides them through how to apply each idea. Every chapter concludes with an interactive element such as an exercise, quiz, or reflective prompt to help turn insight into action.