WHY SPEED IS KILLING GOOD DECISIONS
OPENING BRIEF
Speed doesn’t reward intelligence.
It punishes hesitation—and exposes bad judgment.
Every organization believes it has a speed problem.
They talk about moving faster, shortening cycles, accelerating execution, and eliminating friction. Leaders equate velocity with competitiveness and urgency with competence.
That belief is wrong.
Speed is not killing organizations.
Uncontrolled speed is killing judgment.
And judgment—not execution—is where most failures originate.
THE CONFUSION BETWEEN SPEED AND DECISION
Execution speed and decision speed are not the same thing.
Execution speed is about movement.
Decision speed is about commitment.
Most organizations accelerate execution while slowing decisions. They add process, approvals, dashboards, and consensus in the name of caution—then rush once alignment is forced.
That inversion is fatal.
Fast execution following a poor decision only compounds error.
HOW SPEED BECAME A LIABILITY
Speed used to be an advantage because environments were stable enough to absorb mistakes.
That buffer is gone.
Today:
• markets shift mid-decision
• narratives harden before action
• reputation reacts faster than explanation
• delay itself becomes a signal
In this environment, speed without clarity doesn’t create advantage.
It creates exposure.
THE MYTH OF CONSENSUS
Consensus is framed as safety.
It isn’t.
Consensus delays responsibility.
It softens ownership.
It produces decisions that offend no one—and protect nothing.
In high-speed environments, consensus doesn’t reduce risk.
It amplifies it by ensuring no one acts decisively until the moment has passed.
By the time everyone agrees, the window is gone.
This is where drift begins.
DECIDE OR DRIFT
Organizations don’t usually make catastrophic decisions.
They drift into them.
Drift looks like:
• waiting for more data
• postponing commitment
• allowing ambiguity to persist
• mistaking movement for progress
Drift is comfortable because it feels active without being accountable.
Decisions end drift.
That’s why they’re avoided.
SHOCK & AWE
In Shock & Awe (by Steve Brazell), the principle is simple:
Decisive action resets the environment.
Indecision allows it to define you.
Shock is not chaos.
It’s clarity applied with timing.
Organizations that win do not act faster than everyone else.
They decide earlier—and then move with force.
WHY SMART TEAMS FREEZE
Highly intelligent teams are often the slowest to decide.
Why?
• intelligence multiplies options
• options create debate
• debate delays commitment
The smarter the room, the harder it becomes to close.
Without a clear decision authority, intelligence turns into inertia.
WHAT GOOD DECISION-MAKING LOOKS LIKE NOW
High-functioning organizations separate judgment from execution.
(1) JUDGMENT IS SLOWED INTENTIONALLY
Critical decisions are given space—briefly—to be considered properly.
Not endlessly.
Deliberately.
(2) AUTHORITY IS UNAMBIGUOUS
Someone owns the decision.
Not a committee.
Not a process.
A person.
(3) EXECUTION IS IMMEDIATE
Once the decision is made, action is fast and decisive.
No revisiting.
No re-litigating.
No softening.
This sequence—slow judgment, fast execution—is where speed becomes an advantage again.
Most organizations invert it.
THE COST OF GETTING THIS WRONG
When speed replaces judgment, you see:
• rapid execution of flawed strategies
• reputational damage that could have been avoided
• internal confusion masked as agility
• leaders reacting instead of deciding
The organization looks busy.
It isn’t effective.
THE REAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The competitive advantage today is not speed.
It is timing.
Knowing when to:
• pause
• decide
• act
• remain silent
That timing cannot be automated.
It cannot be crowdsourced.
It must be owned.
THE QUESTION THAT MATTERS
The question is not:
“How do we move faster?”
It is:
“Where are we drifting instead of deciding?”
Answer that honestly, and speed becomes an asset again.
Ignore it, and no amount of acceleration will save you.
BOTTOM LINE
Speed is killing good decisions because it’s being applied in the wrong place.
Judgment is rushed.
Execution is delayed.
Responsibility is diffused.
The organizations that win in this environment will not be the fastest movers.
They will be the ones who know when to stop, decide, and then move without hesitation.
Decide—or drift.
