Speed without direction

Execution without direction is just chaos moving faster. Before committing real effort to anything substantial, it’s worth forcing a moment of honesty: what specific user or business outcome will this move, and how will we know within the first couple of weeks whether it worked? If you can’t answer that, you’re measuring activity, not value.

The practice I use to create that moment is three simple moves:

1. Notice — register where you actually are and what problem you’re really trying to solve, rather than the one you assumed at the start.
2. Pause — stop long enough to reflect instead of reacting. The pause is the whole point; it’s where the better decision becomes possible.
3. Reframe — deliberately look at the situation from a new angle and ask whether there’s a better question to be answering.

Shift your mindset with better questions

When you’re stuck or defensive, the fastest way to reframe is to ask a question that pulls you toward a more useful mindset. (The fixed-vs-growth distinction below comes from psychologist Carol Dweck’s work on mindset.)

From fixed to growth

• How could this obstacle actually make me better?
• What becomes possible if I treat this friction as a lesson rather than a setback?

From expert to curious

• What angle am I avoiding because I assume I already know the answer?
• If I dropped my assumptions and started fresh, what would genuinely interest me?
• How much further could I get if I were willing to be a beginner again?

From reactive to creative

• What’s the real underlying purpose of this effort?
• If this roadblock were actually a chance to build something better, what would that look like?
• What’s the smallest possible action I can take right now to move toward it?

From victim to agent

• What levers do I still control here?
• Which of my skills, assets, or relationships can I use to work through this?

From scarcity to abundance

• How could we shape an outcome where everyone gains at once?
• If our current limits vanished for a moment, what bigger possibilities would appear?

From certainty to exploration

• What’s the lightest experiment I could run today to test a different path?
• Can I name three genuinely different views on how to resolve this?

From protection to opportunity

• What if the move isn’t to defend, but to seize a new advantage?
• What’s the best-case outcome here, and what precise actions would trigger it?

Put it to work

• Look at your team’s top three initiatives this week.
• For each, ask: are we measuring the effort to build it, or the value it creates?
• If you can’t clearly state the expected outcome, pause until you can.