Myth 5: Fast Change is Better Change

By Al Adamsen  |  Future of Work Advisors

When it comes to leadership in the age of Ai, automation, and continuous disruption, one belief continues to hold disproportionate sway over strategic decision-making: the faster we change the better. Many leadership teams – pressured by shareholders, analysts, and board members – interpret speed as a proxy for strength, decisiveness, and simply good leadership. Decide fast, launch fast, pivot fast, and you’ll win. The idea is enticing, especially in a world where technology and competitors appear to be sprinting ahead.

Yet, as Ashley Goodall argues in his outstanding book, The Problem with Change, the rush to change quickly can often be far more destructive than constructive. Goodall points out that too much change, happening too fast, leaves employees disoriented, disengaged, and distrustful. They have little clarity about what to count on and what to expect, thus feel as though they’re standing on perpetually shifting ground (and as this Californian can attest, like many in earthquake prone areas… not a good feeling).  With ongoing instability, energy that could be applied to innovation and performance is instead allocated to dealing with uncertainty, confusion, and doubt.

|  Fast Feels Good, Until It Doesn’t

Leaders today face uncommon pressure to hit near-term financial targets. This reality often drives CEOs, CFOs, and other executives to place big bets on Ai, robotic process automation, and other technological innovations. Sometimes these bets are well-placed. Other times, they’re made without enough consideration for the ripple effects across employees, customers, and critical processes.

Recent research from MIT underscores this point. According to their August 2025 study, more than 95% of corporate generative Ai pilots have failed to deliver the productivity gains promised. Despite the hype, most organizations are struggling to integrate Ai into workflows in a way that produces measurable results. In other words, speed isn’t solving the productivity puzzle. It's often compounding the problem.

Quick decisions, especially when made under pressure, with poor information, and a lack of time and space to learn and consider options, often ends up being very costly, sometimes extraordinarily so when considering opportunity costs and rework. Implementations stall. Workflows break down. Employees disengage. Customers feel the impact. Rather than creating momentum, the effort to move fast actually slows progress and adversely affects organizational performance.

|  Why People Need Stones to Stand On

Research consistently shows that poorly managed or overly hasty change initiatives have failure rates exceeding 70%. The reasons aren’t mysterious: leaders underestimate the time required for people to adapt, they don’t align around clear governance, and they fail to establish the dependable foundations (values, communication channels, decision-making frameworks, etc.) that employees need to navigate disruption with confidence.

As Goodall reminds us, employees crave dependable “stones to stand on”. When these are missing, even well-intentioned change feels like chaos and generates feelings of anxiety and angst. So, as a leader and leader team, how to mitigate the risk of feelings of angst within your workforce?  How will you all meet the fundamental needs of workers – what Drs. Erin Eatough and Shonna Waters of Fractional Insights identified as security, growth, and significance – and build a culture that’s stable, high-trust, and confidence-inspiring?

|  Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow… as Leaders

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, in his seminal book Thinking, Fast and Slow, distinguishes between System 1 (fast, intuitive, emotional) and System 2 (slow, deliberate, analytical) modes of thinking. Both are essential—but knowing when to rely on fast intuition and when to deliberately slow down is a hallmark of great decision-making.

The same applies to organizational change: some initiatives require quick action, but most benefit from thoughtful pacing, alignment, and clarity. The paradox is this: in times of relentless external change, organizations need leaders who know when to slow down. Slowing down doesn’t mean being complacent. It means committing to the discipline of creating time and space to consider goals, strategies, and potential impacts before charging forward.

|  Foundations for Confident Change

This discipline – taking the time to assess options, to weigh second- and third-order effects, and to communicate transparently with employees – becomes a competitive advantage. It signals that leadership isn’t being reactive, but thoughtful. It communicates steadiness when others might act frantically or even panic. And, perhaps most importantly, it builds confidence in the people who are responsible for carrying the change forward.

Before rushing into your next big decision that’s going to ripple yet more changes through your organization, ask whether you and your leadership team have invested in these 7 Essentials of Organizational Change:

1. Shared Values & Purpose: Are your decisions anchored in a clearly articulated purpose and values employees trust?
   
   
2. Clear Governance: Is there a transparent process for who decides what, and how those decisions are made?
   
   
3. Communication Discipline: Are you communicating consistently, clearly, and across multiple channels so people know what’s happening and why?
   
   
4. Decision-Making Frameworks: Do leaders use agreed-upon frameworks to evaluate trade-offs, impacts, and risks?
   
   
5. Capability & Readiness Assessment: Have you evaluated whether your teams and systems are prepared for the change?
   
   
6. Pacing Awareness: Do you know which elements of the initiative require speed (to seize opportunity or reduce risk) and which require slowing down (to build alignment, ensure adoption, and protect trust)?
   
   
7. Learning Loops: Are there mechanisms in place to learn, adapt, and course-correct along the way?

When these foundations are in place, organizations can move at the right speed, the speed that’s appropriate for the goal – fast when it’s prudent, deliberate when it’s necessary.  Fast change is not inherently better change. Thoughtful change – change that balances speed with stability, and intuition with deliberate analysis – is what leads to high employee confidence, an adaptable organization, and enduring success.

To learn more about the other Myths click here.  And to learn how to assess your organization’s adaptive readiness and, in turn, build executive decision-making processes rooted in timely, relevant, and actionable insight, follow and connect with me here on LinkedIn.  Finally, be sure to subscribe to the Future of Work Advisors Newsletter.