High agency and autonomous execution are different.

They're the same kind of thing, but at different scales.

High agency is about being able to pick from a broad range of possibilities.

Autonomous execution is about picking from a much smaller cone of possibilities.

A company like Apple has highly autonomous execution but does not encourage high agency for all but a very small number of people.

The more it's about execution, the more it's about metrics: line cooks.

The more it's about agency, the more it's about taste: chefs.

Line cooks are typically unable to effectively manage chefs.

Taste isn't possible to measure directly with numbers.

The line cook will reflexively reach for things that can be measured, which is in tension with the things that create quality.

Chefs can sometimes effectively manage line cooks.