Move Fast and Fix Things

OpenAI’s board took a tough call of firing the founding CEO Sam Altman without having trust from their organization/people or winning confidence of their investors like Microsoft.

Within 24 hours, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, offered Altman an independent leadership role for their new AI initiative, pledging full support. Altman’s move to Microsoft initially seemed to conclude the saga until 700 OpenAI employees threatened to join Microsoft. Under immense pressure from both internal and external stakeholders, OpenAI reversed its decision, reinstating Altman as CEO and restructuring the board. In either scenario, Microsoft emerged victorious as a company and investor.

Microsoft’s size did not hinder Satya Nadella’s swift decision-making in the company’s best interest, backed by trust from its people and stakeholders.

Satya Nadella moved fast and fixed things, and in doing so, earned trust and respect. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s motto “move fast and break things” was popularized by Meta’s success and went on to inspire entrepreneurs and leaders across the globe. In their latest book, authors Anne Morriss and Frances Frei challenge the idea of breaking things while moving fast. They recommend that leaders should “Move Fast and Fix Things” which is also the title of their newest book.

Moving fast and breaking things may work when businesses are in early experimentation phase . However, prioritizing only speed as an organization grows can lead to overlooked mistakes resulting in lack of trust. The authors say,

We observed a clear pattern among leaders who were most effective at fixing things fast, the ones who fought their way to Accelerating Excellence. At a foundational level, these leaders had a distinct relationship with speed and trust. They treated pace and momentum as mission critical, and they also focused relentlessly on gaining and keeping the trust of their stakehold-ers. They experienced all the same things that hold the rest of us back, the same fears and doubts, but they believed that the antidote to those fears and doubts was fast, trust-building action. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this hands-on playbook on accelerating change and transform organizations while also building a culture of trust, inclusion and collaborative problem solving. Move Fast and Fix Things is an essential read for any leader looking for inspiration to raise the bar of excellence with their teams.

I particularly loved the 2×2 matrix of speed and trust which outlines the concept very well. Here is a quick snapshot of a few ideas from the book in form of a #sketchnote summary.

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Updated: Visual Leadership Pack of 70+ HD Sketchnotes

If you liked the sketchnote summary above, check out the Visual Leadership Pack of HD Sketchnotes – a compilation of high-resolution sketchnotes with 70+ powerful (and timeless) ideas to elevate your leadership and learning game.

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