The Pressure to Move Faster

“If you can’t do it faster, I’ll get someone who will.”

I’ve heard versions of this more than once over the past 10–15 years.

Not always said this bluntly. Often implied. Sometimes wrapped in urgency, sometimes framed as innovation, sometimes positioned as necessity.

It usually shows up as expectations like these:

• Get more done with less budget, people, or time

• Bring timelines forward, but don’t compromise quality

• Deliver new “must-haves” while still running the core business

• Reuse what another team built to accelerate delivery

• Adopt AI immediately to increase productivity

Taken individually, each request can sound reasonable. Together, they create sustained pressure to move faster, often without space to properly absorb the trade-offs.

Over time, I’ve found this pressure rarely comes from strategy itself. More often, it comes from comparison, fear of falling behind, or the desire to appear decisive and innovative.

To manage this reality, I’ve learnt the importance of:

• Clear prioritisation and decision governance

• Making trade-offs and impacts explicit

• Documenting risks and decisions, not just outcomes

• Using roadmaps to anchor expectations to agreed outcomes

• Relying on delivery data to ground pace in reality

Where do you feel pressure to move faster and how are you balancing it?

#StartingStrong #Leadership2026 @NexusConnectNZ