Move Fast & Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems
Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
Harvard Business Review Press (October 2023)
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African Proverb
Obviously, there are times when you can only go far by going fast and other times when you can only go fast by going together.” But more often than not, the African proverb is true. In theirt Introduction, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss observe: “In this book, we show you how to apply the full force of empoWerment leadership andf achieve [high-impact] results in rcord time.”
They present and explain a research-driven playbook for fixing problems quickly,”whether it’s a broken company culture or a product that no longer fits seamlessly with your market. Layered on top of good general leadershiup hygiene, this playbook offers an order of operations for solving hard problems with the level of urgency they demand. We’ve organized the book according to this playbook — one step for each day of the week — and this is the work we’re going to do together in the pages ahead.”
More specifically, here is the playbook’s five-day process:
Monday: Identify the root causes of your real problem rather than react to symptoms.
Tuesday: Solve by formulating a trust-building solution.
Wednesday: Earn wide and deep buy-in of “new friends” who have diverse talents and perspectives.
Thursday: Tell a “good story” that celebrates what has been and can be accomplished.
Friday: Go as fast as you can — “and at a reduced risk of breaking things.”
Note: Channeling Albert Einstein, I urge problem-solvers to go as fast as necessary…but no faster… when empowering everyone while executing the plan. In this context, Steven Wright would point out that the early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Brief digression: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has always been a strong proponent of the “Day 1” business outlook. In fact, he’s preached the idea so often that it has become one of the company’s internal mantras. The Day 1 mentality means that even though Amazon is nearly 25 years old, the company treats every day like it’s the first day of their new startup.
Day 1 is an incredible idea – it’s a way to stay relevant and on your toes. Every successful startup begins with a solution to some problem or need. A promising startup focuses on what the consumer needs, and how they want it, even if they don’t know it yet.
According Bezos, “The outside world can push you into Day 2 if you won’t or can’t embrace powerful trends quickly. If you fight them, you’re probably fighting the future. Embrace them and you have a tailwind.”
Bezos suggests that strong trends are not that hard spot in today’s world. Many big companies get caught up with what has worked for them in the past instead of embracing what the present and future call for. That’s what Day 1 is all about; attacking every day by searching for ways to become and stay relevant to your customers.
The concept of Bezos Day 1 mentality has received its fair share of backlash within the business community. The chief argument against the Day 1 ideology is that most companies and startups don’t know the first thing about anything when they first begin; so why stay in that awkward growing phase? The answer to that is simple: When you treat every day like it’s Day 1, you’re not simply sitting stagnant on the information you had at the start. You’re building on what you’ve learned, and you continue to evolve. Amazon certainly hasn’t been stuck in the past – quite the opposite. Amazon is now worth north of $1 trillion and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
When you look at the incredible success of Amazon, it’s hard to ignore the idea of Day 1. If it works for Jeff Bezos and the second largest company in the world, there has to be something to it. Bezos holds that it isn’t enough to have Day 1 be in your mission statement – it has to be a constant reminder. That’s why the main office building that Bezos works out of is named Day 1.
According to Daniel Slater (AWS), these are the keys to decision making at speed:
“1. Recognize two-way doors. While some decisions are one-way doors, others are two-way doors, meaning they are reversible, and you can correct mistakes quickly.
2. Don’t wait for all the data. If you wait until you know everything, you are probably being too slow.
3. Most decisions only need about 70% of the information you wish you had.
4. Disagree and commit. People can disagree, but once a decision is made, everyone must commit to it. This saves time versus trying to convince each other.”
These are among the passages in Chapters 1-3 of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Frei and Morriss’ coverage:
o A Playbook for Fixing Things Fast (Pages 5-8)
o Identify Your Real Problem (15-18)
o Build a Team of Problem Solvers (19-22)
o Figure 1-1: Monday Morning Questions (23)
o Ten Indications Your Organization Is Stalling (29-32)
o Build a Case with the Data You Haved (35-38)
o Decide What You’re Going to Fix This Week (43-44)
o Tuesday’s Agenda (47)
o Fail with Enthusiasm (48-49)
o Ten Organizational Trust Pitfalls (53-56)
o Make Your People Better (59-62)
o Change How You Work (62-66)
o Make the Difficult People Decisions (70-73)
o Walk the Talk (76-80)
o Wednesday’s Agenda (83-85)
o Figure Out Why You’re Doing This (85-88)
o Ten Delicious Findings on the Competitive Advantages of Inclusion (89-92)
o Make It Physically and Emotionally Safe to Be Different (98-102)
o Welcome Everyone Despite Their Differences (105-110)
Note: My own opinion is that, more often than not, people should be welcomed because of their differences.
o Champion Uniqueness at the Scale of the Organization (113-115)
Frances Frei and Anne Morriss provide an abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel. It remains for each reader to determine wbhich of the material is most rvelevant to the needs, interests, values, respouyfrces, and strategic objectives of their organization.
Here are two concluding suggestions while you are reading Move Fast & Fix Things: Highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), and page references as well as your responses to questions posed and to lessons you have learned. (Pay close attention to the key reminders in introductory head notes and end-of-chapter reminders.) These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.