Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems

by Frances Frei; Anne Morriss, Anne Morriss (reader)

Bestselling authors and cohosts of the TED podcast Fixable , Frances Frei and Anne Morriss reinvent the playbook for how to lead change—with a radical approach that moves fast, builds trust, and accelerates excellence. Speed has gotten a bad name in business, much of it deserved. When Facebook made "Move fast and break things" an informal company motto, it fueled a widely held belief that we can either make progress or take care of people, one or the other. That a certain amount of wreckage is the price we have to pay for inventing the future. Leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss argue that this belief is deeply flawed—and that it keeps you from building a great company. Helping executives and entrepreneurs solve their toughest problems over the past decade, Frei and Morriss learned that the trade-off between speed and excellence is false. The best leaders solve hard problems with fierce urgency while making their organizations—employees, customers, and shareholders—even stronger. They move fast and fix things . Based on their work with fast-moving companies such as Uber, Riot Games, and WeWork, Frei and Morriss reveal the five essential steps to moving fast and fixing things. You'll learn With a one-week plan to fix your problems on a fast cycle time of one step per day, this book is your guide to maximizing impact and reinventing your approach to change. By the end of the week, you won't just have a road map for solving your company's toughest problems—you'll already be well on your way, improving your company at exhilarating speed.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Audiobook, Self Help, Communication

1 pages, Audio CD

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book the authors have teamed up to write. I know this because they reference the first two in this book. I am sure they had a great time writing it but probably should have focused on a stand alone book with substance. Very wave top and lacks the detail needed for substantial change in an organization.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Business processes, strategy and change management focus. A good solid book with many real life examples of the recommended strategies and tactics. A good addition to one’s continuous professional development as a leader. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last 40% of the book is pretty good. The first 60% is eye-rolling.

I'm going to chalk up my irritation to some kind of Myers-Briggs personality difference. Parts of the book are written flippantly--the endnotes in each chapter are flat-out eye-rolling and snarky. It drove me bananas. An example of an asterisk: "for our younger readers: a check was a special piece of paper that you could turn into any denomination of currency you wanted by writing things on little designated lines." This kind of stuff is ALL OVER this book and just comes in random places. I found it distracting and irritating. I have lots of "????" notes in my kindle. (Suggestion for the writers: completely rewrite your endnotes--they take away from your credibility)

This book uses a 5-day work week schtick, where the chapters are broken into days of the week. I found that confusing and had to keep looking at the table of contents to remember what the chapter was about. They made a lot of references to "Tuesday" and I couldn't remember what Tuesday was.

Monday: Identify your problem
Tuesday: Solve for trust
Wednesday: Make new friends
Thursday: tell a good story
Friday: Go as fast as you can

Most of my concerns are in the "Monday and Tuesday" of the book. I think if I was sitting around a room with people and their preconceived notions it would be a very long morning where we ultimately ended up on a wild-goose chase. What would make the "Monday" chapter better would be a LOT more emphasis on really getting to root cause and using some kind of objective methodology to do that. Without an objective methodology of some kind, the "monday" chapter doesn't work. It might actually harm an organization because you would end up solving something that has nothing to do with the "problem".

But as the book moves along, it gets better. And "Thursday and Friday" have a lot of useful ideas.

I liked the idea of Hanlon's razor: "never attribute to malice that which is adquately explained by neglect." I've heard that before, but it certainly helps explain organizations.

I also liked the idea that "individual impact still mattered to your advancement at the company, but just as important was how much you contributed to other people's success."

The story structure of "the good ol' days, the change mandate, and the optimistic way forward" I can actually see being useful. Love the idea that "there is such a thing as being too late". And I like the idea of using the phrase "can someone articulate a different point of view".

Probably the most valuable idea in the book is the idea of "conflict debt". That was new to me and will probably change my own approach. I really like that idea.

I am also a big fan of reducing WIP, which is another idea in the Friday chapter.

And I completely agree on the idea of creating safe-working environments for team-members.

Overall, this book is worth 3 stars. But I would strongly warn against using "Monday" as is. There needs to be some kind of objective methodology around "finding the problem".

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Approachable, witty, and endlessly passionate, this book is a great blueprint for growth and change management. I found it inspiring and encouraging, a healthy mix of tactical advice and broader sweeping themes.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the most impressive thing about "Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems " is its title, which riffs on the tech industry anthem of "Move Fast and Break Things". Certainly, the author's focus on actually fixing things and intentionally initiating organizational changes is a very nice contrast to the common assumption that disruption will automatically result in system wide improvements. It's this focus that provides the real value of the book in that it moves to shift the paradigm and encourage decisionmakers to make decisions that are transformative not destructive.

The road map and checkpoints that this book details are well thought out and will definitely provide useful guidance to those engaged in organizational change. However, the primary focus of this book is on high level executives who initiate and envision change and not the people who actually implement it. As such, it fails to cover the process required for transformative change at a deep enough level and completely ignores many factors that govern the rate of change an organization can safely endure. As such, implementation of this book's ideas as recommended in the book itself is likely to meet roadblocks in many organizations. Additionally, the one week window that the book suggests to pilot change within an organization is not realistic for many organizations.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Harvard Business Review Press, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Ignas · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK but was expecting way more

Maybe because I have read a lot of material from Frances, maybe because I have taken course they were leading while in Uber - I haven’t got much new from this book. I had feeling that it is even filled with content that can be skipped. But if it would be first book from Frances, you might feel differently. Tips and framework that is described here really works and I still have finished the book just to remind myself of it.

[Max D'onofrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a self help.bool for CEOs, it wasn't bad to read but not sure the advice was all aimed at my type of job. Still good some fun tidbits of out of it I will remember. Mostly around communication and management vs leadership style.

[Alexander Krastev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice concept and a few good ideas but… nothing beyond that. 5 chapters named after the 5 work days of the week, 1 final chapter for the weekend, don’t waste your time…

[James Lovaas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I don’t want you to do is to take months or even years, which tends to be our default timeline for solving hard problems - Anne Morris

Raise your hand…if you’ve read, or heard, the line that is attributed to Facebook (or sometimes Google), “Move fast and break things”. If you’ve been following Silicon Valley and the tech industry at all, you have probably read or heard this statement many times. It’s not necessarily wrong. It drives us to move faster than we think we can. However, for many of us outside of the tech world, we’re not sure how it applies to our business. Or, even if it might apply to our business, we’re not sure that it is the right approach at this point. Well, now you can consider some similar ideas that absolutely apply to your business: “Move fast and fix things!”

In their recent book, Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss expounds upon the concept of moving fast and challenging all of us to start fixing things and improving our organizations…now. Not weeks or months from now. The structure of the book uses the five-day workweek to walk readers through a plan for addressing existing issues within their organization:
Monday - Identify your problem(s)
Tuesday - Create a “good-enough” plan
Wednesday - Make new friends (employ diverse individuals and groups)
Thursday - Tell a story
Friday - Go fast

The reality is that most of our organizations have issues that warrant being addressed. Most of our organizations will spend far too much time pondering…considering…avoiding..and even ignoring the issues rather than confronting and addressing. That is, ultimately, what I got from this book. The need to start showing some sense of urgency. We must acknowledge the reality that many of our most challenging problems are costing us money and talent.

Frei and Morris do not merely challenge us to address our issues. They also challenge readers to understand their cultures and the shortfalls that affect business and employee satisfaction. Beyond traditional business challenges such as product development or customer engagement, the authors challenge readers to consider the cultural issues that may hinder progress on multiple fronts. If you’re looking to develop organizations that amaze customers and embrace internal partners (employees, vendors, etc.), then this book needs to be on your reading list.

Talk directly to the other people who have a stake in your problem. Sounds obvious, but you might be surprised to learn how infrequently people actually do it. - Anne Morris

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Organisational change at pace can work, as long as you have the trust between leaders and teams to make it happen.

That’s my overall takeaway from the latest book by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss ‘Move Fast and Fix Things’.

Turning the maxim to ‘move fast and break things’ on its head Frei and Morriss make the case that you don’t have to make a choice between making change and supporting people. That progress doesn’t have to be slow and steady to bring people with you.

Set out over five days the book takes you through a focussed set of steps to make meaningful change in an organisation. The authors are clear that not all problems can be fixed in a week (although their challenge to readers is to start from an assumption that they can), so the five days structure also works as five steps.

• Identify the real problem holding you back
• Build and rebuild trust in your company
• Create a culture where everyone can thrive
• Communicate powerfully as a leader
• Go fast by empowering your team

As with ‘Unleashed’ by the same authors this book is immensely readable. The tone of voice and approach is very human and easy to translate into day-to-day. I also highly recommend their Fixable podcast for lots of practical examples of how to implement this approach.

I particularly love the gut check summaries of whether you’re ready to move on to the next step. And the lists and questions to provoke reflection.

And if you don’t recognise the barriers to change in the section on ‘Ten signs your organisation is stalling’ then you’re probably working for one of the exemplar companies in the book. The ones which rang loudly for me were:
• People doubt whether the organisation (really) has a problem. Or the subset of this one is that only parts of the organisation have the problem. Even more reason why in my book they should be championing the change to bring everyone to their way of working rather than opting out of the cultural change process because they’re already ‘perfect’.
• You’re asked to respond to the grave concerns of unidentified critics.

Whether you’re working in comms, leadership, organisational development or just care about the organisation you work for, this is a must read.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frei and Morris propose 5 key steps (which they call “days”) towards driving change in an organization
They argue that speed and trust work together. Trust is needed to drive speed. And, speed of change drives trust.
Low Speed & Low Trust imply inevitable decline
Low Speed & High Trust they call “Responsible Stewardship”.
Low Trust and High speed they cal “Reckless Disruption”
High speed and trust is the “Accelerating Excellence” quadrant where we get to move fast and fix things.
MONDAY - Identify your real problem
Make sure to really identify the problem by diving deep and asking 5 whys.
Interesting anecdote about looking at why woman professors were getting tenure slower. Initial hypothesis was sexism. “Let’s solve that problem”. But, authors looked more deeply and found it was really woman professors published less as they waited until perfection to submit. So, they pushed female professors to submit publications earlier and tenure rates equalized.
Use data that already exists in the organization or collect new data
Careful not to collect data and then not use it. That builds cynicism. Example is annual colleague happiness surveys
TUESDAY - Solve for trust
Organization trust has three drivers. (They used the same drivers for individual trust in their other book.) They talked about where each fails or wobbles
Authenticity - The org does what it says it will do
E.g. Patagonia.
Logic - The organization can reliably meet my needs
Bad business model or business model people don’t trust
Capability gap in work force. Talked about training (pg61) and said that in fast move businesses formal training is better than informal. Fast moving businesses don’t have time for informal training.
Empathy - The org cares about me as a stakeholder
Important to pay existing colleagues fairly.
Turtle story (75). Summary, make sure you understand what you’re “fixing.”
College student sees a turtle walking far away from the lake. Seeing a lost turtle, the student picks up the turtle and carefully walks it all the way back to the lake. After letting it go, her professor says “That turtle probably spent a month walking up from the lake to find a safe place to lay eggs.”
WEDNESDAY - Make New friends
Inclusion works if and only if people feel comfortable sharing what they uniquely know. If they instead stick to mutually know areas companies perform better without diversity. But, with sharing, diverse orgs perform better
Pg 109 - Warning on blunt force instruments to hit targets. E.g. requirements for diverse slates or hiring quotas breed cynicism without making the conditions needed for inclusion
Nice formulation to bring out other ideas in a meeting. “Can anyone articulate a different view point”
THURSDAY - Tell a good story
Change requires telling the same story over and over and over
Understand things deeply so you can explain them simply
In telling story, make sure to start with what you want to keep from org
Use stories
Leaders are always broadcasting emotions. Use it strategically
FRIDAY - Go as fast as you can
Make decisions with 70% of the information you think you need
Cost, quality, speed. You get to choose only two
Conflict is important as it makes teams stronger. Managing this is a skill you can learn.

[Katy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Speed unleashes your organization's energy and reveals where you're going. Trust convinces your stakeholders to come along for the ride."

Much like Uncommon Service, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss once again nailed the organizational leadership genre. Their books are so easy to understand and implement. They are organized and easy to follow. They propose ideas that can instantly transform the people in your organization.

By breaking the problem-solving process into five steps that are compared to the days of the week, this book proves that it is interested in process first and foremost, ahead of theory. There is no reason you cannot take the ideas discussed in this book and begin to use them immediately to improve your organization's problem solving culture. The one weakness of this book is how generic it is. This was intentional by the authors - they state they wanted this book to be used to solve any organizational problems, and not focus on specific genres of problems leaders face. Which while it gives it a mass appeal, it makes it slightly harder to implement and is the reason for the one star downgrade from me. However, there is so much good here, and any leader looking to change their organization should consider this required reading.

[Elizabeth Harrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the style funny and warm, not taking itself too seriously. The idea of framing the book around the days of the week worked well for me although I agree with another reviewer in that I couldn't remember what each day (step in the process) represented and had to keep flipping back. I think the premise is that you should go fast and that you can complete a lot in a focused day, assuming the intent and desire is there. For smaller problems, you don't need loads of analysis: your team will know which are the problems that cause the most hassle each day so those are the ones you can fix with this approach.
If you are a leader empowered to make changes, reward your staff and you want a kick in the direction of getting on with things, then this would be a good choice. If you are in an organisation where you are not empowered to do things differently, hire, promote or reward, then you might struggle to put these concepts into action.
I received an advance copy from HBR Press.

[Gary Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a quick read with topics and areas of focus separated into the five days of the work week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The format resonated with me and helped me dive deep in my understanding on each topic area.

Some of the nuggets that I made special note of:

- How to avoid converging on solutions too early when identifying problems
- "People are the only investment with the possibility of infinite returns"
- The concept of trust wobbles (empathy, authenticity, and logic)
- Stories as the most powerful weapon at a leader's disposal
- "The leaders who don't get speed right tend to use other people's time casually."
- Trying to be great at everything leads to "exhausted medicrity"

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a window into many other texts. Even if the change-management material itself might not always hit the mark, it is clear the authors are extremely well-read and on every page reference other interesting-sounding texts. The footnotes section is a veritable to-read list.

The intended audience is certainly high-level executives, seemingly for start-ups or smaller sized businesses. However there are transferable actions to other organizations, and the stories told come from a diverse set of businesses. The framework of a work-week to complete the work is obviously unrealistic, but a clever structure.

The content is easy-to-read and the authors are fun and often tongue-in-cheek. Looking forward to bringing some of this to my team.

[Chris Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid challenge to conventional business wisdom. "Move Fast and Fix Things" is focused on a more collaborative, expansion model vs the older "burn it all to the ground and start afresh" approach.

The perspectives presented were refreshing and from a very uncommon vantage point. I very much appreciated some of the subtle takes and tweaks to the "old way" of doing things.

As with most books of this nature, I did not agree with all of the conclusions but learned enough tricks and approaches that I'm excited to try out when I next might them.

Very quick, very useful and well done!

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the book for several reasons: simplicity of the ideas and implementation scenarios and frameworks. The main focus is to drive excellence with a five day framework of simple and straightforward steps that fix the issues and embrace team work, collaboration and creativity. The steps are divided into days of work and guide through a problem solving process. There are plenty of use cases, methods and tips on how to drive great and creative solutions within the organization through change.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the format of this book- it is divided into chapters by days of the week.

Each day builds on the others. Like in the real world. Friday was my favorite. Friday really made it all come together.

Biggest takeaways were foster a good culture, grant autonomy to your employees, and you need to focus on what is more important. If everything is important or everything needs to be done fast, nothing is important or will be done fast.

This is not a book to binge- definitely something to pace on.

[M Subaiei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book in one day; as it is structured as week days. Identity your real problem, build trust, develop teams DEI, tell your story and move fast as you can.
Most of the topics look familiar to me and I had to read quickly but I took a lot of notes. Some chapters were more interesting than others. The authors refereed to their previous book “Unleashed” a lot. The book is insightful and informative.

[Jarred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart, sharp and doable

This book - which follows Frances’ excellent TED talk on the method - has the potential to be life-altering for leaders and organisations. It’s a method that is clear and concise and with some practise, immediately useful. I loved this book - highly recommended.

[Matthew Bruemmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of solid ideas in this book. However, it seems like 50 podcast episodes about leadership thrown into one book. It’s hard to digest any of them besides a few very clear ones with examples. I can tell these women are smart and know how to develop leaders but this one is just okay. Didn’t follow the day of the week concept they outlined.

[Mandy B · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️ The design of this book is interesting, structured like a Monday-to-Friday guide. However, the ideas are fairly standard business concepts. I didn’t learn anything new or particularly useful. The authors frequently refer readers to their other books for more detailed insights. Pass on this one unless you’re completely oblivious to change management.

[Arun Narayanaswamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting take on growth and speed balance in an Organization. The authors have written this book in hbr style with case studies and research across various topics like culture, diversity, conflict management etc.
though the title of the book is misleading, I feel it’s a good read for generic readers and not designed for people who pick a book to learn something specific or detailed.

[Paul]

This is a little tough to review without testing these ideas, but the authors' approach does seem to have merit, and I enjoy their strategies and ideas. Worth a read.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very quick read with simple yet powerful concepts. I appreciated that the author’s acknowledges that the tradeoffs to moving fast and fixing things is likely either quality or cost. Great high level overview of how to create a culture of moving quickly with intentionality.

[Charles Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

50%

This is a very average performance book for organizations, it doesn't include anything new to the discussion it was completely blasé it was not necessary it just detracts from other books that do a better job of streamlining the information and providing it, do better or don't publish.

[Jeevan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the title, this book reads fast and can be done in one sitting. It divides the task of solving a hard problem with a dysfunctional team by breaking down the tasks into 5 days of the week. Recent company examples are interlaced in the narrative.

[Ashutosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

practical and simple

Great practical insights which I am able to use almost immediately. Well written and kept me glued to it. Will definitely come back to it and keep referring to it as I work on making change happen in my team and my organization

[Breanne Wozniewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the brevity of this book but honestly it was mostly platitudes and anecdotes rather than helpful advice.

There is also a heavier emphasis on DEI infinitives than I realized which while very important, was not sold as the premise of the book

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting read and new way to think about the process.
I didn't have a specific "problem" to fix, so I was less invested in trying to follow the process, but there were some great take aways.
Probably need another read in the future