Not Another HR Blog: Why We’re Doing This Differently

May 30, 2025

By Michelle Arieta

Let’s start with the obvious: the internet does not need another HR blog.

Especially not one filled with “10 Reasons to Update Your Handbook” or endless takes on how to boost engagement with a pizza party.

This isn’t that.

At Polaris Pathways, we work with founders, executive teams, and HR leaders who are in the thick of it—scaling fast, navigating change, or dealing with dynamics that don’t fit in a neat bullet-pointed checklist. These folks don’t need more generic advice. They need clarity, momentum, and the kind of real-world insight that comes from being in the work.

So this blog has a different purpose.

We’re here to ask better questions.

Most people already know what to do. They just need help asking the right questions.

That’s a belief I come back to constantly—one reinforced by experience and one that no AI prompt or SHRM article can truly replicate.

Asking great questions is harder than it sounds. It’s a skill I’m still working on. (Some days I give myself a B-minus. On the generous ones, maybe a solid B.) But I’ve learned over the years that asking sharp, honest questions is often more powerful than handing someone an answer. The right question can reframe a conversation. It can cut through noise. It can unlock a stuck team.

That’s what this space is for.

What you can expect:

  • No condescending HR 101 content
  • No corporate-speak
  • No pretending everything is simple or fixed with a checklist

Instead:

  • Smart takes on real issues that execs and people leaders are facing
  • Questions that challenge assumptions or open up new ways of thinking
  • Some wit, a little bite, and zero fluff

You’ll see topics across leadership, compensation, HR maturity, hiring, founder dynamics, and what it really takes to scale a people function in a high-growth or messy phase.

At the end of each post, you’ll find 2–3 questions—

Not answers. Not a toolkit. Just a few prompts that I hope stick with you long after you’ve closed the tab.

Let’s build something better than another HR blog.

Let’s build a space for thinking, stretching, and actually doing the work.

See you in the next one.

—Michelle

Before you go, a few questions to sit with:

  1. What’s a question you haven’t asked your team—or yourself—lately, that might be overdue?
  2. Where are you relying on best practices instead of trusting your own judgment?
  3. What’s one assumption you’re making about your org or team that could use a challenge?