Why 'Speed' Is Panic In Disguise
Move fast, be first, break things - and things get broken.
Innovation often gets framed as a race: Move fast, be first, break things.
But over the years, I’ve found that speed starts to backfire when it becomes the main metric.
And we’re seeing the mantra ‘go faster’ everywhere.
I was recently working with the exec team of a new AI scale-up, incubated inside a larger tech org.
Their mandate was to build something groundbreaking with AI, and prove its commercial value fast.
The expectation was clear: disrupt the market and deliver results fast.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the team broke down under these conditions.
Not because they lacked ideas. They had brilliant ones.
But the pressure was so intense and the goals so unclear that it completely shut down risk-taking.
Without shared clarity on what mattered, what was allowed, and what success looked like, agency and innovation disappeared.
They didn’t know where to lean in.
And when they did try something, the pressure to produce immediate proof led them to abandon good ideas before they had a chance to breathe.
It reminded me of something simple I keep re-learning:
Speed without clarity isn’t innovation; it’s panic in disguise.
This experience shook something in me. I’ve spent years championing bold ideas, but I had to face a hard truth: when we push teams too hard, too soon, without the right conditions, we become the ones killing innovation.
For exec leaders navigating this tension, here’s what helps:
1. Pace and Patience
Push progress, protect the process.
Yes, innovation needs urgency. But if you force breakthroughs on a quarterly clock, you’ll skip over insight.
💡 Example: A team launches a beta AI feature in 3 months (pace), but leadership agrees not to measure success for 2 quarters (patience), giving space to learn, not just deliver.
2. Autonomy and Alignment
Give teams freedom: anchor them in shared purpose.
Innovation thrives when teams feel trusted, but freedom without an insatiably clear direction leads to wasted effort.
💡 Example: A product team sets its own roadmap (autonomy) and checks in monthly on how their work connects to the broader AI ethics and user trust principles (alignment).
3. Disruption and Discipline
Encourage creative leaps: with strong execution muscle.
Big ideas don’t mean much without delivery. And tight delivery doesn’t guarantee impact if you only iterate on what already exists.
💡 Example: A team prototypes an entirely new AI product line (disruption), while the ops team builds robust testing, security, and deployment infrastructure in parallel (discipline).
Most companies get stuck when they pick a side. They either slow innovation down with too much process, or they burn teams out by demanding results on a timeline that doesn’t match reality.
When leaders hold these tensions well, they don’t just get smarter products. They build bolder, more resilient teams who know how to think long-term while delivering in the now.
If you’re looking for a facilitator or coach to help your teams navigate these tensions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss options. Reply to this email for more information.
Dean