Beware Counterfeit Agility
We love speed. In projects, in decision-making, in execution - momentum feels like progress. But what if it’s not? What if we’re just moving fast in the wrong direction?
Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism and Effortless, describes a problem he calls counterfeit agility - when we mistake frantic motion in many directions for meaningful progress.
It’s the actions that produce outputs that never get used.
It’s the weekly project update where endless tasks get added but lacks real progress.
If your action list keeps growing while outcomes remain unchanged, it’s a sign of a system that isn’t working.
Speed without direction
A key cause of counterfeit agility is a lack of clear context. Teams can struggle to understand what's truly important, where to concentrate their efforts, and which actions will make the biggest difference.
This becomes particularly dangerous in technical projects. Without sufficient input from subject matter experts, the subtle trade-offs and long-term consequences of decisions can be easily missed.
As a result, the desire to take immediate action runs against the need to have patience and do the hard work to truly understand the long-term impact.
High activity, low progress
It's alarmingly easy for projects to slip into a 'firefighting' approach, constantly reacting to immediate problems without achieving meaningful traction. This pattern results in a flurry of activity, growing frustration, and weeks lost circling issues that could be resolved in hours with the right expertise in the room.
Counterfeit agility is a major risk when things are complex and emergent. The antidote is to create space to think.
Think. Connect. Act
As leaders, our role is not just to push forward, it’s to find the right balance of Think, Connect, and Act.
In complexity, the impact of thinking is amplified so it needs to be a focus:
• Individually: Making time to sit with a blank page, mapping out insights, and questioning assumptions.
• Collectively: Bringing the right people together, aligning around purpose, and ensuring actions move in the right direction.
In complex projects, space to think has a greater impact on performance than any number of status reports or traffic light dashboards.
Reflection is a high-leverage discipline that needs to be part of your project cadence.
What is your thinking practice?
If nothing is changing, there’s no need to reflect on what you have learnt. But in complexity, things are always shifting.
Have you scheduled time—both for yourself and your team—to pause, reflect, and adjust?
Because in the rush to move forward, sometimes the smartest thing to do is stop and think.
