Speed vs Velocity

I love Claude.

It's one of my favorite tools, and I've been using it daily for months.

I can't imagine going back to a time without it, but the regular use of AI has me reflecting on the impact it has on an organization.

There's a common analogy when it comes to business strategy around speed vs velocity.

The two are similar, but the main difference is that velocity has direction.

The interesting thing about AI is that it feels fast.

It researches quickly, summarizes swiftly, and creates drafts in seconds.

The speed is self-evident.

What isn't always as obvious is whether that speed actually translates to increased productivity.

It's easy to confuse the feeling of moving fast with actually making an impact.

I've read some other posts along these lines that make a similar point.

Moving fast doesn't matter if you're making the wrong decisions.

I genuinely share these concerns. AI slop is a real thing, and it has a real drain on productivity (we've all read through an AI generated document where it was apparent that the person who shared it didn't read it).

The slop isn't a feature of AI. It's a bug in the organization around it.

Ensuring that AI is used with direction is largely the role of the organization.

Here are a few performance consulting questions worth asking (drawn from Gilbert's Behavior Engineering Model):

• Are there clear expectations for how AI should be used?
• Are individuals receiving feedback on how they are using AI?
• Do people have access to the right AI tools?
• Do people have the time to learn how to use AI, or are they just expected to produce faster?
• Has anyone been taught what good looks like when using AI?

If the answer to most of these questions is no, then an organization will likely only leverage AI for speed.

Whether that speed has direction is still up to the organization.

That's the difference between speed and velocity.