By Frances Frei, Anne Morriss
Leadership playbook for accelerating change
Subject
Themes
Organisational change demands both speed and trust, yet most leaders believe they must choose between moving fast and taking care of people. This false trade-off has shaped corporate culture for decades, epitomised by Meta's abandoned motto "Move fast and break things." The reality is that effective leaders solve problems at an accelerated pace whilst simultaneously building trust with customers, employees, and shareholders. Speed unleashes organisational energy and reveals direction, whilst trust convinces stakeholders to join the journey. Without both elements, companies find themselves trapped in one of three undesirable quadrants: Responsible Stewardship (slow but trusted), Reckless Disruption (fast but damaging), or Inevitable Decline (neither fast nor trusted). Only by pursuing both speed and trust simultaneously can organisations reach Accelerating Excellence.
Organisational change demands both speed and trust, yet most leaders believe they must choose between moving fast and taking care of people. This false trade-off has shaped corporate culture for decades, epitomised by Meta's abandoned motto "Move fast and break things." The reality is that effective…
This work enters organisational change literature at a pivotal moment when traditional approaches to transformation face increasing scrutiny. The book directly challenges the dominant Silicon Valley ethos that shaped technology sector culture for decades, explicitly repudiating Meta's notorious…
Organisational trust rests on three foundational pillars that mirror personal trust dynamics. Stakeholders must believe a company genuinely cares about them (empathy), possesses the capability to meet their needs (logic), and consistently does what it says it will do (authenticity). When…
The fastest path to solutions involves systematic learning from what does not work, yet organisations often treat mistakes as unwelcome bogeymen rather than valuable assets. Intelligent failure, defined as unsuccessful trials that teach something important, represents a renewable resource that…
Inclusion creates conditions for people to thrive not despite differences but precisely because of them, representing the ultimate investment in organisational trust. When team members bring individual differences to work, teams become more capable of meeting stakeholder needs with rigorous logic,…
Persuasive change narratives unlock energy and imagination by connecting organisational past, present, and future in ways that people can believe because they experience them as changes in reality rather than theoretical visions. Getting messages right matters, yet the fastest way to undermine…
Achieving results at accelerated pace requires empowering everyone to execute plans whilst reducing risk of breaking things. This represents the culmination of weekly efforts: Monday identified real problems, Tuesday built trust through solutions, Wednesday improved plans with diverse perspectives,…
The challenge facing leaders is not whether organisations are broken, but rather acknowledging that imperfect humans inevitably build imperfect organisations. Leadership practice involves imperfect humans leading imperfect humans, making curiosity about imperfections essential for making things…
Tuesday morning confidence represents absence of pretense and swagger, emerging from solving right problems and distinguishing between activity and impact. The mission involves creating Good Enough Plans to build and rebuild stakeholder trust. This sandbox day encourages getting into motion,…
Common sources of wobbly organisational logic emerge when workforces lack skills to meet stakeholder needs. Capability gaps between work requirements and assembled teams prove more common in high-growth companies where needs change rapidly, but spiking complexity makes gaps universal. Leaders should…
Inclusion creates conditions for people to thrive not despite differences but because of them, representing ultimate investments in organisational trust. When team members bring individual differences to work, teams become more capable of meeting stakeholder needs with rigorous logic, deep empathy,…
Understanding deeply enables describing simply, a discipline requiring rigorous comprehension before communication begins. Complex transformations demand thorough understanding, yet simplicity in description makes ideas accessible across organisations. The trap lies in confusing complexity with…
Achieving results at accelerated pace requires empowering everyone to execute plans whilst reducing risk of breaking things. This represents the culmination of weekly efforts: Monday identified real problems, Tuesday built trust through solutions, Wednesday improved plans with diverse perspectives,…
By Frances Frei, Anne Morriss
Subject
Themes
Organisational change demands both speed and trust, yet most leaders believe they must choose between moving fast and taking care of people. This false trade-off has shaped corporate culture for decades, epitomised by Meta's abandoned motto "Move fast and break things." The reality is that effective leaders solve problems at an accelerated pace whilst simultaneously building trust with customers, employees, and shareholders. Speed unleashes organisational energy and reveals direction, whilst trust convinces stakeholders to join the journey. Without both elements, companies find themselves trapped in one of three undesirable quadrants: Responsible Stewardship (slow but trusted), Reckless Disruption (fast but damaging), or Inevitable Decline (neither fast nor trusted). Only by pursuing both speed and trust simultaneously can organisations reach Accelerating Excellence.