Here is the full transcript of Anne Morriss’ talk titled “5 Steps to Fix Any Problem at Work” at TED conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
You’ve heard the phrase “move fast and break things.” Facebook made it famous. But really, Mark just made the mistake of saying it out loud and putting it on company posters. By the way, Mark and I are not on a first-name basis. But sometimes using the first names of our leaders reminds us that leadership is a practice of imperfect humans leading imperfect humans. That’s why it’s so hard. How’s it going, Elon?
“Move fast and break things” is still a widely held belief that we can either make progress or take care of each other, one or the other. That a certain amount of wreckage is the price we have to pay for inventing the future. My wife and I have spent the last decade helping companies clean up this wreckage. And one of the main lessons from our work is that the trade-off at the heart of this worldview is false.
Leadership and Responsibility
The most effective leaders we know solve problems at an accelerated pace while also taking responsibility for the success and the well-being of their customers and employees and shareholders. They move fast and fix things.
Now, what’s come out of our work is something of a playbook for fixing problems quickly, whether it’s a broken company culture or a struggling friendship. And so what I want to do with you today is invite you to try on this playbook over the course of an imaginary week.
So how this is going to work is I’m going to give you an agenda for each day of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You see where this is going. And then I want you to go home and try it and see how much progress you can make. Does that sound reasonable? OK. I’m seeing some signs of consent, thank you. Start by thinking of a problem that you’re having right now that involves at least one other person, your kids, your co-founders, your customers, etc.
Monday’s Task
Now in our imaginary week, it’s now Monday morning. Now Monday morning, it’s a bad rap, but we like to think of it as the gift of renewal that comes around every seven days. On Monday, your task is to figure out what your real problem is, which may not be the problem that you thought you had just a minute ago. Because here’s the thing. As human beings, we tend to be overconfident in the quality of our thoughts, particularly when it comes to diagnosing our own problems.
“My investors don’t get it.” “My Gen Z employees are entitled.” “My dog is mad at me.” Let’s find out if you’re right. The thing that’s going to help you out most today is your own curiosity. So turn that original diagnosis, “My Gen Z employees are entitled,” into a question rather than a statement. “What’s going on with my Gen Z employees?” Now your next move sounds obvious, but you might be surprised to learn how infrequently people actually do it.
Talk directly to the other people who have a stake in your problem. Ask some things you might not normally ask in polite company, things that require a little courage on your part. Now, as I look around the room, and I’m being a little presumptuous, I suspect this is going to be hard for some of you. I get it, I come from a very WASPy family. There were three approved topics of conversation: the pets, the weather, and Tom Brokaw for some reason.
But sometimes just a single brave conversation can reveal an entirely new structure to your problem. Some of you will discover, for example, that you have a role to play in creating the problem that you’re now solving this week. Instead of your Gen Z employees being entitled, for example, you might discover it’s you who feels entitled. To burn them out and pay them less than what they’re worth, simply because that was the broken work contract that you put up with at their age.
I’m just spitballing up here. But what I do know is that whatever it is you learn today, you’re going to be closer to understanding what’s really getting in the way of the relationship or the organization or the life you want.
All right, excellent first day, everyone. Get some rest. Now it’s Tuesday. On Tuesday, your job is to run a smart experiment in how to solve your problem. Start by creating a good-enough plan to strengthen the relationship at the center of it.
Trust and Experiments
Now, a good-enough plan is distinct from a perfect plan, which is an elusive, fantastical creature that has never actually been spotted in the wild. We tend to think about problems through the lens of trust. So one prompt that often helps on Tuesday is what could you do tomorrow to build more trust than you did today? For one team we were working with, they decided to stop texting each other about each other in the middle of meetings.
Someone else we were coaching decided that it was time to come clean to his cofounders, that he was ready to move on from the business. Another leader decided that it was time for him to take full responsibility for the unintended harms of a product that he’d designed. Is your good-enough plan going to work? Probably not. Statistically, not on the first try. That’s why I’m giving you all a week to figure it out. But also to make the inevitable, unavoidable mistakes.
The purpose of Tuesday is not to get it right. The purpose of Tuesday is to learn. It’s to get into the sandbox of your life and give yourself permission to play.
Alright, go and have the adult beverage of your choice, which you have definitely earned.
Now it’s Wednesday. On Wednesday, your job is to do something that adults generally don’t like to do. It’s to make new friends. But the research is really clear.
Making New Friends
That whatever problem you’re trying to solve this week, you’re going to be better at solving it with people who don’t already think like you do. I know you’ve heard this before many times. But today is your chance to practice. So describe your good-enough plan, the one you came up with yesterday, to someone whose life experience has been materially different from yours. If you’ve been at the company for a decade, talk to someone who started last week.
If you’re a white partner, talk to a Black partner. If you’re queer like me, talk to the straightest person you can find. Contrary to what you may have heard recently, they’re everywhere. And when you’re done with that conversation, have another conversation with someone else who’s different from you on some other gorgeous dimension of the human experience. This is going to take you all day, and some of you are going to be surprised to discover that it’s your favorite day of the week.
At the end of the day, you’re going to be smiling, and your good-enough plan is going to be an even-better plan. OK, now it’s Thursday, good morning. It’s Thursday, you’re unstoppable. Thursday is storytelling day. As humans, we need stories to make sense of change, to find our place in the script of it. Stories also help us to activate all the other people around us whose help we’re going to need with that change.
Stories of Change
Stories have three parts: past, present, future. We often skip over that past part in moments of big change. We did some work with Uber when it was going through its very public crisis in leadership. And when the new guy came in, the new CEO, and hosted his first all-hands meeting, he committed to retain the edge that had made Uber a force of nature. Now, this line was met with thunderous applause. The applause of relief.
He also joined in a standing ovation for his predecessor, who also happened to be in the room that day. I was so struck by the grace of this choice. And that’s the word I want you to bring to your own storytelling. Listen, Uber had serious problems to solve, as anyone reading the news could figure out. But the people in that room had built something extraordinary, and they had something real to lose in an uncertain future.
Instead of setting himself up as some kind of company savior, the new guy honored that complicated truth. Honor the complicated truth of the people around you, the ones who aren’t so sure about all your big plans. Then tell us why you want to change things. Finally, tell us about the future in vivid and specific language. Tell us what it’s going to feel like when your story becomes our reality.
The Payoff of Friday
Alright, it’s Friday. It’s Friday, and you’re almost done, I promise. The payoff of Friday, the payoff of this whole week of hard work, is that you now get to move fast because you’re far less likely to break things. So do everything you decided to do over the last week, but now do it with a sense of urgency. Urgency releases the energy in the system. It makes it clear to everyone that you take the problem seriously.
So whatever administrative hurdles, whatever unproductive process is in the way of taking action today, just strip it out, just refuse to tolerate it. People ask us all the time about the optimal timing for big change. And our answer is almost always the same. How about now? Now seems good. Take action now, and then learn from whatever happens next. And at the end of this day, at the end of this week, your even-better plan has a chance of being a great plan.
Alright, that’s it. That’s your week. Congratulations, you did it, as you rest and recover, which is essential. I want to leave you with one final thought. I spend my time helping leaders to change and evolve. And no one has ever said to me, “I wish I had taken longer and done less.” What I do hear again and again is the opposite. And so my invitation to you today is to practice. To practice taking less time to do more of the things that will make your relationships and your teams and your organizations stronger.
And to be honest, you have my blessing to take longer than a week to get it done. What I don’t want you to do is to take months or even years, which tends to be our default timeline for solving hard problems. Most of our problems deserve a more urgent response. Most of our problems deserve a metabolic rate that honors the frustration and the mediocrity and the real pain of the status quo for some of you. Thank you.
So whether your name is Mark or Elon or Chris — thank you for having me — or Anne, find out what happens when you move fast and fix things and decide that the moment that matters most is right now.
SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:
Anne Morriss’ talk, “5 Steps to Fix Any Problem at Work,” outlines a practical and innovative approach to problem-solving within the workplace. She begins by challenging the traditional belief in a trade-off between making progress and taking care of each other, advocating instead for a model where leaders can do both simultaneously.
Through a series of steps assigned to each day of a hypothetical week, Morriss emphasizes the importance of understanding the real problem, engaging in courageous conversations, building trust, leveraging diverse perspectives, and storytelling to effect change. Her methodology encourages direct engagement with issues, promotes empathy and inclusivity, and recognizes the value of making incremental improvements.
The talk is particularly notable for its emphasis on the human element of leadership and the potential for growth in acknowledging one’s own role in workplace problems. Morriss’ approach is both accessible and actionable, providing a clear framework for leaders looking to foster a more responsive, responsible, and resilient organizational culture. Her insights are a call to action for leaders to move fast and fix things, emphasizing urgency, empathy, and the power of collective effort in problem-solving.