22 Dec 2025
34m

658R: How to Help Change Happen Faster, with Frances Frei

Podcast cover

Coaching for Leaders

This podcast episode explores how leaders can embrace urgency and speed in organizational change without causing collateral damage. Frances Frei, Harvard Business School professor and author of "Move Fast & Fix Things," challenges the belief that going fast is reckless and slow is righteous. She advocates for empowering individuals to make decisions, citing Ritz-Carlton's policy of allowing employees to spend up to $2,000 to resolve customer issues as an example of successful empowerment. Frei introduces Little's Law, highlighting the importance of reducing work in progress over solely focusing on cycle time. She also emphasizes the value of "tournament play" or healthy conflict, and encourages leaders to cultivate curiosity to improve team ideas and performance.

Outlines

Part 1: Mindset, Speed, and Urgency

Part 2: Empowerment and Strategic Trade-offs

Part 3: Systems and Process Optimization

Part 4: Conflict, Curiosity, and Problem Solving

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