Organizational momentum is a vector—it has both direction and magnitude. Without clear direction, increased speed only means you’re getting lost more quickly.
I’ve watched this play out enough times to know the pattern. The fundamental truth is that direction is everything. You can have the fastest, most efficient execution in the world, but if you’re heading in the wrong direction, you’re just accelerating toward failure.
The Vector Problem
I’ve seen organizations pride themselves on execution speed while drifting aimlessly. They measure velocity, track velocity, optimize for velocity—all while ignoring that velocity is a vector quantity. Without direction, speed is meaningless.
Even worse: scattered efforts across multiple directions. When your team pulls in five different directions with equal force, you don’t get slow progress—you get zero progress. The vectors cancel out. All that effort, all that motion, adds up to nothing.
This is why alignment matters more than hustle. A team moving slowly but in the same direction will outpace a team sprinting in different directions every time.
This applies whether you’re leading an entire organization, a team, or trying to drive change from any position. The physics are the same.
The First Question
The first question should always be: Where are we going?
Only after that’s clear should you ask: How fast can we get there?
This seems obvious when stated plainly, but I’ve seen organizations do the opposite. They start with execution, with process optimization, with speed improvements. They assume direction is already set, or that it will emerge from the execution itself.
It rarely does.
Organizations that succeed get religious about direction. They communicate it relentlessly. They use it as a filter for every decision. They’re willing to say no to perfectly good ideas that point the wrong way.
What Misdirection Costs You
Speed without direction doesn’t just waste effort—it actively destroys value.
Teams build features nobody needs, faster. Engineers solve the wrong problems, more efficiently. Meetings proliferate to coordinate conflicting efforts. Burnout increases as people work harder for less impact. Morale drops as people sense the futility of their work.
It burns out your best people on meaningless work. It creates organizational debt that’s harder to unwind the longer it continues.
Getting Direction Right
Setting direction isn’t about having a perfect vision from day one. It’s about being clear enough that people can align their efforts.
When everyone can articulate where the organization is headed, decisions become easier because you have a filter. You can say no to good ideas that point the wrong way. Individual efforts compound instead of canceling out. Progress becomes visible and measurable.
Why Speed Still Matters
None of this means speed doesn’t matter. It does—tremendously.
When you can move fast, you reduce the cost of being wrong. If you can fix your mistakes as quickly as you make them, you can afford to make mistakes and learn from them. Speed reduces the need for slow deliberation because the feedback loop is tight enough that errors become cheap.
This is why the sequence matters so much. Direction first, then speed. With clear direction, speed becomes your advantage. Without it, speed just amplifies your mistakes.
Of course, setting direction is only the beginning. Actually changing an organization’s direction—getting everyone aligned and moving together—is a different challenge entirely. I explore that in Turning the Ship.
