A Day-By-Day Playbook For How To Move Fast And Fix Things

Last fall, leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, cohosts of the TED podcast Fixable, released their book, Move Fast & Fix Things. In it, they share a unique, engaging and hands-on playbook developed from their work with companies from Uber to Riot Games to Walmart.

The authors say there are five essential steps leaders must take to both move fast and fix things and more specifically, you can use their week-long approach that lays out a distinct agenda for each day.

That approach is:

Monday: Identify the real problem holding you back – Far too often, companies don’t tackle the root issues but instead focus on surface problems that mask what’s really going on. The solution is to ask tough questions, build a team of problems solvers, and surface major roadblocks to progress. Then, gather new data and listen, really listen, with the curiosity of an anthropologist and the accountability of a leader.

Tuesday: Build and rebuild trust in your company – With the confidence that comes from knowing the right problem to solve, running smart experiments to steady trust “wobbles” helps strengthen relationships with key stakeholders.

Wednesday: Create a culture where everyone can thrive (aka “make new friends”) – Creating the conditions where everyone can thrive as complex, multidimensional humans can lead to a better change plan—and better performance—by including more and more varied perspectives.

Thursday: Communicate powerfully as a leader – Creating change means developing a powerful narrative honoring the past (both the good stuff and the not-so-good), articulating a compelling change mandate, and describing a rigorous and optimistic way forward. Then, telling that story with emotion, again and again, makes it impactful.

Friday: Go fast by empowering the team and removing roadblocks. – Leading change with a sense of urgency means empowering others to execute quickly. Clear strategy and a culture of speed are keys to unlocking rapid, enduring change.

You’ll want to read the entire book for more instruction for each day’s activities. The authors add that, “In truth, you’re unlikely to measure the change you’re leading in days. Most of you will take weeks and months to do this work, which is perfectly reasonable. What we don’t want you to do is take years.” They encourage readers to be patient.

Finally, even though Frei and Morriss’s larger message is to: “operate with urgency, be wildly ambitious, and fix as much as you can along the way,” they caution readers to avoid the trap of taking yourself seriously even though the work of change is sometimes deadly serious. They ask that you inject fun and joy throughout the entire process.

“When companies move fast and fix things, they can look forward to Monday again and to solving their problems with optimism, creativity, even joy,” share Frie and Morriss.

Frances Frei is a professor at Harvard Business School. She served as Uber's first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy. Her TED talk on the topic of building trust has had over six million views.

Anne Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and founder of the Leadership Consortium, a first-of-its-kind leadership accelerator that works to help emerging leaders thrive. Her recent TED talk, which has had over one million views, focuses on the move fast and fix things approach.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me a copy of the book.

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