Speed is Everything!

Executive Summary

Speed of execution destroys risk, when you know what you’re doing.

Introduction

Twelve months ago I was studying telecom and asking what the real problem was? Why were we not able to compete, why were we falling further behind in terms of being a market leader versus a market follower. I arrived at a point of view and tested it with some trusted experts. I received feedback that it was too simplistic and we did not push hard on the concept.

But it continuously turns up in conversation and has appeared as a side effect rather than the leading character.

I increasingly believe speed is the goal.

Speed of execution

• counter intuitively reduces risk,
• creates stability,
• creates momentum.

The enemy of speed is risk. However as we shall see, risk is reduced with speed, if speed is introduced in the correct way. Let's list all the different perspectives that influence an organizations ability to transform speed of execution, what fundamental building blocks are required. What, if anything we are missing.

Let us start with...

Mindset

In 1953, the summit of Everest was conquered for the first time. Edmund Hilary's team consisted of 400 people, 7 camps and took 5 months. Planning was meticulous, every eventuality was covered. No detail was overlooked, and contingency planning ensured any situation could be managed even in such isolation and at such high altitudes.

In 2017, Kilian Jornet Burgada repeated Edmund Hilary's feat twice in one week, without any camps and no oxygen.

Expedition Style versus Alpine Style. Same goal, very different cost structure, very different approaches, very different mindset.

Which was riskier?

Expedition style manages risk through rigorous planning of the expedition itself and being prepared for all eventualities. This creates overhead, time, and slowness.

Alpine style manages risk through the application of technology, training and planning before the expedition. The expedition does not start until the participants are ready, and if problems happen, the participants have the discipline and lightness of execution and technology to make rapid adjustments, and manage risk in real time.

Which is "riskier?"

Numerically, the expedition approach places 400 people in risk for 5 months. The alpine approach places one person in risk for a couple of days.

If the expedition approach was asked to repeat the task, it would take another 5 months, 400 people and 7 camps.

With the alpine approach, Kilian went back up the same week.

Which style is more like telecom? Expedition or Alpine.

Creating Speed of Execution

Mindset is step 1. What else does it take to be fast and not create risk?

There is a big difference between moving with speed and being in a hurry.

1. Accountability. It is easier to hide in 400 people than in 4 people. Each person needs to show up, perform, and be accountable.
2. Empowerment. With accountability comes empowerment. People who are accountable will best design their solutions as part of the team.
3. Technology, Tools. In highly performing situations, tools and technology are designed around the people, the people are not designed around the tools and technology.
4. Discipline. All highly performing individuals are disciplined. It is less natural talent, it is more repetition, continuous improvement and being better every day, rather than being the best. Experts tend to be experts of many things, since they are experts at the process of being an expert, rather than the specific area of expertise they have applied themselves to.
5. Training and practice. Train and practice. Every day push the comfort level one step further. Kilian could have failed to reach the summit of Mount Everest 2 times a week x 4 times a month x 7 months = 56 attempts before he was taking longer than Edmund Hilary. 56 attempts would still have been cheaper.
6. Timing. When is technology, tools and new processes at a mature enough level to support new approaches to difficult challenges? Technology and tools do not live independently from the humans using them, there is a symbiotic relationship. The better question is whether people or an organization is at a fit enough level to adopt new tools and technology. It is less "is the technology fit for purpose?", it is more "is the organization ready to adopt them?".

To move quickly, safely, requires people that are committed to performing challenging tasks and take personal pride in what they are able to achieve. Is the culture one of blame or one of support?

Do people have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? What does the culture nurture?

What do management support?

Move quickly as a habit, and the habit becomes the destiny.

Don't take my word for it

I purposely have not peppered references to other materials but there are many documents I recommend reading.

The first is from McKinsey explaining how speed of execution builds beliefs and momentum.

The next document we contributed to as part of STL Partners research - "Automation at Speed".

Finally, we documented our full approach to de-layering and automation in the "Mobile as a Software" paper.

And just for fun, here is Einstein reading the "Automation at Speed" paper.