A review by liseyp
Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems by Frances Frei, Anne Morriss

funny informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

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.