Move Fast and Fix Things

How can you change things quickly without leaving chaos in your wake? This is the central question Frances Frei and Anne Morriss ask in their bold leadership guide, Move Fast and Fix Things. Drawing on their work with companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Harvard Business School, they argue that true organizational progress doesn’t come from choosing between speed and care—it comes from balancing both. Their central claim is simple but revolutionary: great leaders should move fast and fix things.

For decades, “move fast and break things” was Silicon Valley’s call to arms. But as Frei and Morriss make clear, breaking things—trust, cultures, relationships—creates long-term drag that undermines even the most brilliant innovations. The more sustainable path is learning to build speed on a foundation of trust. Speed drives momentum and progress; trust ensures people want to come along for the ride.

The False Trade-Off Between Speed and Care

In their introduction, the authors dissect the myth that you can either move fast or take care of people. Having worked with companies cleaning up after reckless disruption, they say this belief is not just wrong—it’s costly. Organizations that fail to see how trust fuels speed end up in one of three dysfunctional states: Responsible Stewardship (safe but slow), Reckless Disruption (fast but careless), or Inevitable Decline (slow and broken). The aim is to reach the top-right quadrant they call Accelerating Excellence—the space where trust and pace amplify each other.

To help readers find that quadrant, they introduce the FIX Map—short for “fast, iterative excellence.” This framework asks every leader to analyze how their organization balances speed and trust. If speed reveals your destination, trust is what gets everyone to board the plane.

The Five-Day Playbook for Change

To make their philosophy practical, Frei and Morriss structure the book as a five-day journey—a metaphorical week that guides leaders from diagnosis to action. Each day represents a principle of effective leadership:

• Monday: Identify your real problem. Instead of reacting to symptoms, dig deep to uncover the true barrier blocking progress.
• Tuesday: Solve for trust. Every organizational wobble—lack of authenticity, empathy, or logic—can be fixed by designing trust-building experiments.
• Wednesday: Make new friends. Inclusion isn’t a moral afterthought; it’s the engine that drives innovation, speed, and better decisions.
• Thursday: Tell a good story. People move faster when they believe in a shared narrative that honors the past and lights the path forward.
• Friday: Go as fast as you can. Empower others, cut unnecessary friction, and build a culture of urgency without burning trust.

Each step builds toward momentum: identify truth, build trust, gather difference, inspire belief, and empower speed.

Why These Ideas Matter Now

The authors wrote during an era when change fatigue and corporate cynicism are rampant. Many leaders confuse patience with prudence and confusion with caution. Frei and Morriss challenge that paralysis with optimism: most problems are fixable if you move fast enough to matter. Their method pulls leaders out of “Responsible Stewardship”—the polite limbo of meetings and task forces—and helps them rediscover the joy and creativity that only action can bring.

The premise also reflects a deep ethical stance: leadership isn't about your heroic performance; it’s about empowering others to thrive. By blending pragmatism and empathy, Frei and Morriss show how leaders can restore energy and humanity to business. If their previous book Unleashed introduced empowerment as the heart of leadership, Move Fast and Fix Things makes it operational—showing how you can apply empowerment to solve hard problems quickly, without breaking what matters most.

“Your mission isn’t to fix everything—it’s to convince yourself and everyone around you that everything is fixable.”

Frei and Morriss ultimately offer a hopeful playbook for modern organizations. In a world obsessed with optimization, they remind us of something simpler and more powerful: trust is the ultimate accelerator. When people believe in each other, progress stops being a grind and starts to feel exhilarating. Their message is clear—you don’t have to choose between moving fast or doing good work. You can, and must, do both.

The week begins with what Frei and Morriss call “the gift of Monday”—the chance to start fresh by identifying what really needs fixing. Most organizational change fails not because of poor solutions but because leaders fix the wrong problem. The authors push you to pause, get curious, and challenge the comforting stories you’ve been telling yourself about what’s really broken.

Choosing Curiosity Over Judgment

Curiosity, they argue, is your superpower. Harvard researcher Francesca Gino’s studies show curiosity boosts innovation and lowers errors—but it can’t coexist with judgment. The first step in seeing clearly is setting judgment aside (Frei even suggests assigning your inner critic a name—like “Donna”—and telling her to sit this one out). Accept that imperfection is inevitable, including your own role in your organization’s flaws.

Building a Diverse Problem Team

Frei and Morriss recommend creating a “Culture Strike Team” or “Forum” of five to twelve people who see the company from different angles. They call these empathy anchors—people who can read emotions, build trust, and aren’t afraid of candid discussions. Diversity of perspective is essential; homogenous groups protect the status quo instead of challenging it. Michele Buck at Hershey’s, for instance, handpicked a mix of disruptors and operators to reinvent the company into a snack powerhouse. Her group’s diversity gave her insight traditional executive committees couldn’t match.

Exploring What’s Really Holding You Back

Once the team forms, the authors suggest using “Monday morning questions”—provocative prompts like “What frustrates you most about how we work?” or “What would you do if you had my job?” Kat Cole of Cinnabon famously asked, “What do we throw away?” to surface wasted effort and outdated habits. The goal isn’t pristine facilitation but honest conversation that unmasks sacred cows and “houses of no.”

Collecting and Analyzing Data

But curiosity must be grounded in fact. Frei and Morriss propose gathering what they call “Sunday night data”—whatever information already exists before you start collecting more. This could be employee surveys, customer complaints, financial records, or exit interviews. When Christine Keung revamped city programs in San Jose, she discovered that 95 percent of city scholarships went to families living within 1.5 miles of community centers simply because that's where posters were hung. The data revealed a systemic blind spot she could fix immediately—by advertising citywide.

Next, test your assumptions with analysis. GE’s inclusion leader AJ Hubbard, for instance, asked for data on who was joining, leaving, and being promoted. Patterns—like differences in who thrives—often reveal the true problem. Maybe it’s not engagement; it’s inequity. Maybe it’s not turnover; it’s toxic leadership.

Listening to the Humans Behind the Numbers

Once the data speaks, go talk to the people living those numbers. Frei and Morriss call these “loungewear conversations”—informal, low-stakes interviews. Hubert Joly at Best Buy listened to frontline employees to learn about “showrooming” (customers testing products in-store but buying on Amazon). Their feedback led to policies like price matching and in-store pickup that reinvented Best Buy’s model almost overnight.

Through both data and storytelling, you’re looking for root causes. The authors even encourage compiling an “indignities list”—the small daily frictions that signal deeper cultural failure. When nurses at one hospital complained about broken copiers that slowed them down, fixing that minor issue became a symbol for valuing frontline staff—and catalyzed bigger reform.

“Your mission on Monday isn’t to fix everything—it’s to fix the right thing.”

By the end of Monday, you should have a clear, simple, jargon-free statement of what’s broken—and why it matters. Frei and Morriss remind you that choosing one problem doesn’t mean ignoring others; it means starting somewhere. As they say, “not now” isn’t “never.” The act of fixing one meaningful thing creates momentum to fix many more.

If Monday was about uncovering your real issue, Tuesday is about rebuilding the foundation that lets you fix it: trust. Frei and Morriss call this day your sandbox—time to experiment, learn quickly, and embrace intelligent failure. Companies that move fast do so because their culture is built on trust; without it, speed causes wreckage.

The Three Pillars of Trust

The authors define organizational trust as resting on three pillars—authenticity, empathy, and logic. People trust you when they believe you’re real (authentic), that you care about them (empathy), and that you can deliver (logic). When any of these wobble, trust erodes. Uber, for instance, had empathy and authenticity wobbles—its brash culture alienated drivers and the public even as its product logic remained strong. Under Dara Khosrowshahi, the company rebuilt empathy into its DNA through safer design and clearer values like “We do the right thing. Period.”

Failing with Enthusiasm

Frei and Morriss celebrate failure—as long as it’s “intelligent failure.” NerdWallet’s “Fail Wall,” where employees post sticky notes describing their mistakes (like the CEO’s PR campaign gone wrong), demonstrates that normalized failure fuels innovation. Google reports that over 80% of its experiments fail; what matters is learning fast. The goal isn’t to avoid mistakes but to replace fear of failure with curiosity about what they can teach you.

Finding Your Organization’s Trust Wobble

The authors provide a diagnostic: ten common trust pitfalls. These range from “reliance on heroic employees” (logic wobble) to “delusions of meritocracy” (authenticity wobble). Simply naming your dominant trust problem helps you design the right fixes—training for logic gaps, empathy systems for burnout, or authenticity boosters when messaging doesn’t match action. (As Patagonia shows, authenticity at scale comes from unflinching consistency between words and deeds.)

Closing Capability Gaps

A frequent cause of wobbly logic is missing capability. Airbnb’s Data University illustrates a powerful countermeasure: instead of hiring more data scientists, they trained thousands of employees to think analytically. People are the only investment with infinite return, so Frei and Morriss urge you to invest relentlessly in learning, mentoring, and stretch assignments. Companies that slow down to teach speed up later.

Changing How You Work

Sometimes the problem isn’t people but systems. Robert McDonald, former CEO of Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department, famously said, “Organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get.” If you don’t like your results, redesign the system. Take cues from Barnes & Noble, which empowered store managers to localize book selections, or from Apple, which learned to open up its once-walled ecosystem by allowing outside developers into the App Store. Both examples show that structural change can unleash speed and trust simultaneously.

Advancing and Pruning Talent

Building trust also means making savvy people decisions—promoting where you can and parting ways when you must. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky reminds us, “Your next best employee is most likely your current employee.” Yet, when promotion isn’t viable, clarity and dignity in separations can strengthen rather than strain trust. Frei and Morriss highlight Mignon Early of Fresenius, who used rejections for internal roles as coaching moments, turning disappointment into growth rather than cynicism.

“Trust is the cultural architecture on which speed is built.”

By Tuesday’s end, you’ll have your “Good Enough Plan”: not a flawless strategy but one that actively builds trust through thoughtful experimentation. Frei and Morriss assure you that “perfect plans” are myths; what matters is creating momentum through credible progress. Each small success reinforces trust until it becomes the company’s default mode for moving fast—and fixing things.

Wednesday’s mantra is simple but transformative: move faster by including more people. Frei and Morriss reposition inclusion not as a moral ideal but as a strategic advantage. Diverse teams outperform homogenous ones—if, and only if, they are inclusive. When difference is celebrated rather than silenced, organizations unlock more creativity, clarity, and speed.

From Diversity to Inclusion

The authors stress the distinction between diversity (who’s in the room) and inclusion (who’s participating meaningfully). Without inclusion, diverse teams often underperform because of the “common information effect”—our instinct to talk about what we share instead of what we uniquely know. Frei and Morriss use simple diagrams to show how inclusion expands the overlap of knowledge by allowing everyone’s uniqueness to contribute. “Inclusion cancels the common information effect,” they write—it releases the team’s full intelligence.

Climbing the Inclusion Dial

They introduce the Inclusion Dial, a progression from Safe to Welcome to Celebrated to Championed. You can’t skip levels—safety must come before celebration. Each stage builds trust and engagement:

• Safe: Everyone feels physically and emotionally secure.
• Welcome: Differences are accepted without penalty.
• Celebrated: Unique contributions are valued.
• Championed: Difference is institutionalized as an engine of strength.

Organizations can literally survey where employees land on the dial to diagnose weak spots. Frei and Morriss urge leaders to pay special attention to those who say they aren’t even safe yet—an urgent red flag that demands protection and prevention, not another training session.

Making Safety Real

Safety, they emphasize, is the moral foundation of inclusion. Co-develop solutions with those most exposed to harm—what activist Tina Opie calls “shared sisterhood.” The authors describe leaders like Neta Meidav, founder of Vault Platform, who built a tool that allows employees to privately record incidents of harassment and report alongside others. Safety, trust, and empathy accelerate when accountability is shared.

Creating Psychological Safety

Drawing from Amy Edmondson’s research, the authors show that psychological safety is table stakes for high performance. Google’s “Project Aristotle” found it to be the top predictor of team success. When people fear embarrassment more than failure, innovation freezes. Leaders must model “interpersonal fearlessness”—inviting candor, listening actively, and rewarding dissent.

Celebrating Uniqueness

Managers become inclusion multipliers by setting high standards and revealing deep devotion to their people. When team leads say, “I want to hear from everyone—even if you disagree,” they create space for difference. Tony Prophet at Salesforce describes this shift beautifully: “When you feel seen, included, and valued, the result is a mosaic of ideas.” The best teams thump competitors by making everyone’s perspective visible.

“Inclusion accelerates all three trust drivers at once—logic, empathy, and authenticity.”

By day’s end, you’ll understand why the fastest organizations are the most inclusive. Diversity without inclusion slows things down; inclusion speeds everyone up. As Frei and Morriss put it, inclusion helps you make new friends—and with them, better decisions, faster progress, and a workplace where everyone can thrive.

Thursday is about persuasion—the emotional ignition point that turns your plan into a movement. Frei and Morriss call this “Storytelling Day” because nothing accelerates belief like a story told well. Change doesn’t happen because of memos or metrics; it happens when people see themselves in your vision.

Understanding Deeply to Describe Simply

Complexity is the enemy of conviction. The best stories, Frei and Morriss argue, come from leaders who understand their world deeply enough to describe it simply. T-Mobile’s turnaround provides a model. Facing customer hate, CEO John Legere reframed the company in a single word: Un-carrier. By promising transparency in a deceitful industry, he created a rallying cry that rebuilt trust and excitement. Your story, too, must clarify—not complicate—your mission.

Honoring the Past

Frei and Morriss urge leaders to begin their narratives by honoring the past—both the proud and painful parts. When new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi opened his first town hall, he earned credibility by applauding Uber’s scrappy spirit while acknowledging the damage its culture had caused. Similarly, Harvard Business School’s Dean Nitin Nohria publicly apologized for the school’s past treatment of women, an honesty that became the foundation for progress. Acknowledgment doesn’t slow you down—it accelerates healing.

Creating a Change Mandate

Once you’ve earned trust, you must frame why change is essential—and urgent. The authors cite Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle, who stunned the world by airing ads featuring customers calling the pizza “cardboard.” Instead of defending mediocrity, he admitted the problem publicly and pledged improvement. In doing so, he “blew up the bridge”—there was no safe retreat. Domino’s growth skyrocketed because honesty mobilized both employees and customers to co-own the change.

Describing a Rigorous and Optimistic Way Forward

A good change story must balance realism with hope. Ørsted, once a fossil-fuel giant, rebranded around the vision “85/15”: within one generation, 85% of its energy would come from renewables instead of coal. Its leaders hit the target in nine years, not thirty, because their measurable optimism aligned everyone’s effort. Frei and Morriss remind you that enthusiasm isn’t fluff—it’s strategy. People race toward what feels possible.

Repetition and Emotion

Finally, tell your story again and again. Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally repeated his “One Ford” message in every meeting until people rolled their eyes—and then started living it. Repetition drives clarity and alignment. And don’t suppress emotion; channel it. Indra Nooyi’s handwritten letters to employees’ parents embodied gratitude so deeply that it transformed morale. Authentic emotion, the authors say, “spreads quickly and inexorably.”

“Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”

By Thursday’s close, your mission is to write a simple, three-part story—your company’s Good Old Days, the Change Mandate, and the Optimistic Way Forward. Done right, it invites people not just to understand your plan—but to believe in it, and to make it their own.

After a week of identifying, trusting, including, and inspiring, Friday asks you to act with urgency. Frei and Morriss open with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words from Riverside Church: “There is such a thing as being too late.” The lesson is clear—momentum decays with delay. When you’ve built trust, hesitation isn’t prudence; it’s waste.

Challenging Speed Myths

The authors list ten beliefs that sabotage speed, from “meaningful change happens slowly” to “our people are too busy.” They flip each on its head. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s aphorism “in skating over thin ice, our safety is our speed” captures their point: done right, speed prevents collapse. Waiting for perfect data or conditions kills innovation far faster than mistakes do.

Empowering Others

Speed starts with decentralization. Drawing lessons from General Martin Dempsey’s U.S. Army reforms, Frei and Morriss urge leaders to embrace “Mission Command,” empowering people closest to the action to decide. Ritz-Carlton’s rule—allowing any employee to spend up to $2,000 to fix a guest’s problem—illustrates how empowerment amplifies trust and efficiency. Speed is not chaos; it’s confidence multiplied.

Being “Bad” Strategically

The paradox of speed is trade-off. You cannot be great at everything. Southwest Airlines accepted “bad”—no frills, no baggage transfers—to excel at low-cost speed. Leaders who refuse to make deliberate sacrifices end up with “exhausted mediocrity.” As the authors put it, “To overperform on speed, underperform somewhere else.” Being transparent about trade-offs builds rather than breaks trust.

Building a Culture of Urgency

Culture, not command, sustains speed. Frei and Morriss recount how a single empowered FedEx employee saved the company by delivering a late wedding dress via charter plane—a cultural reflex, not a policy. Cultures shape what people believe is worth hurrying for. To create one, align beliefs (“there is such a thing as being too late”) with behaviors (quick decision loops, clear priorities, visible wins). Culture, they conclude, “is how things are really done around here.”

Run Better Meetings, Do Less Work

One of their most practical speed levers is fixing meetings. Stripe’s Claire Hughes Johnson argues that agendas and preparation cut wasted time by half. Another lever is reducing “work in process,” derived from operations scholar John Little’s Law: throughput equals work-in-progress multiplied by cycle time. Etsy’s CEO Josh Silverman accelerated growth by eliminating half of the company’s projects. Fewer priorities, done faster, beat dozens half-done.

Embracing Constructive Conflict

Finally, mastering conflict is essential to maintaining velocity. Avoided conflict becomes “conflict debt,” slowing everything. Companies like Intel and L’Oréal actually train employees in how to argue well. Healthy disagreement—what Harvard’s Linda Hill calls “creative abrasion”—isn’t dysfunction; it’s innovation in action. When people can challenge each other freely, the organization stops spinning and starts racing forward.

“When trust is high, speed is free.”

Friday closes not with burnout, but with balance. After sprinting through the week, Frei and Morriss remind you to rest. Recharge is part of the process, not a reward. As they put it, “Move fast, fix things, and rest.” Leadership is a cycle, not a sprint—one that starts again every Monday with a renewed commitment to make things better, together, now.