SENSE OF URGENCY

 A “sense of urgency” is an important leadership trait. How often has one visited an operation, a store, hospital, police station and there has been no sense of urgency? Nothing seems to get done.

“An organisation that can sustain a high sense of urgency over time has the potential to become a high-performance machine, where results go from good to great and beyond.”  A quote from Kotter’s book

 John Kotter, a leading management authority, gives some interesting insights.

 A False Sense of Urgency

A false sense of urgency – people looking as if they are busy, rushing around, looking as if they know what they are doing, not getting anywhere…. fast.  Their flapping around is a smokescreen.  Why would they do this?  Good question - could be because they don’t know what to do or because they are lazy, but they need to fool somebody or even themselves that the matter is in hand. This attitude is shortsighted and dishonest.

 Often people have difficulty in saying “I do not know … I must find out.”  For them this is like admitting a weakness.  Not being able to say “I do not know” has a great deal to do with maturity and a lack confidence. Sometimes individuals blame others, often displaying some urgency in blaming others. They blame others for failing or being dysfunctional. It is part of the same smokescreen.

True Sense of Urgency

A true sense of urgency is driven by a deep determination to win.  It is focusing on critically important items that need attention, now.

 Complacency

The opposite to a sense of urgency is complacency, being “laid back”. 

The dictionary definition of complacency is “a feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with a lack of awareness of possible danger or trouble”.  Complacency often arises from success.  The person, or organization, has been successful and falls into the trap of thinking the  status quo will remain forever.

  Arrogance and complacency often go together.  Complacency is one of the dangers that face successful companies.  Key managers become complacent, their focus becomes inward, they fail to see what is happening to the market or other developments outside the firm, like new technology.  The larger the firm the more likelihood of complacency: “We are so big nothing can happen to us”, might be the thinking.  IBM is an example; it once turned down the PC (personal computer), because they knew better.

Creating a True Sense of Urgency

The first tactic to avoid complacency is by bring the outside in – reconnect the firm with the real world. Listen to customers, listen to employees; do surveys.  Many a firm has a false sense of how good they are and how valued they are by their customers.  Surveys often reveal the opposite.

 The second tactic, have a sense of urgency everyday.  Be wary of being so busy and cluttered up with appointments and low priority activities that you don’t have time to be urgent about what really matters. Do things timeously and with speed – keep up to date, delegate and reply to calls, letters and e-mails as quickly as you can.

  In communication remember to talk to people’s hearts as well as their heads, be passionate, show feeling and inspire. The point Kotter makes, is that unless you speak to people’s hearts and raise some emotion, facts and figures, items from the head, will not achieve sufficient action. 

The third tactic is to find opportunities in a crisis.  Some people might succumb to a crisis – there is a crisis, all has gone wrong and there is nothing to be done.  The positive approach is to look for opportunities. In an economic crisis, a recession is an example, where winning firms upgrade their services and products to attract custom in spite of the downturn. In boom conditions firms are often pulled along by the demand. In a recession you must push. Achieving when you have to push can be more fulfilling, one is being challenged, there is a need to be even more creative and resourceful.  

Avoiding a false sense of urgency in a crisis is vital, being jolted into action, and then proceeding without a structure and sense of strategy is problematic.    

Creating a crisis may also have its place to elevate a sense of urgency.  It could be an imagined crisis as a means of heightening awareness of how the organization should react.  Like a fire drill, so when it happens everyone is prepared.  In the increase of robberies to small businesses and households. A crime drill might highlight what is needed.  The robbers’ strongest weapon is surprise, nearly always in a crime, victims are caught off guard.

 The fourth tactic dealing with No! Nos!  persons

In most organisations there are persons who are blocks to true urgency.  They are normally talented and competitive in what they do, good communicators with a sense of authority – might be an older person with considerable experience. For some reason they put a block on the organisation from making real change.  They know better, they are more than skeptics.  A skeptic might be annoying and slow down movement but might be very useful in preventing naïve enthusiasts from creating damage.  But a No No raises anxiety, kills urgency and can be very dangerous.  Kotter concludes, “say goodbye to these individuals”.

 Are there some No Nos in your firm, holding up progress?  In our battle against crime policy - are there some No Nos that prevent a sense of urgency in tackling the problem.

Sustaining that true sense of urgency is the challenge for organisations. 

A true sense of urgency must be ingrained in the culture of an organisation. I did business with some top firms and every time we really succeeded and produced good results, they were the most difficult. They knew that generally, to quote Kotter again:

 “The basic pattern is simple: urgency leads to success leads to complacency”. 

Successful firms or organisations prevent this from happening.

 Weekly meetings

Structure helps to sustain urgency, the weekly report back meeting, checking KRAs (key result areas), looking at the calendar ahead, checking on  the “ to do lists”. A good practicing manager can turn up the urgency at these meetings, put people under pressure who are behind. 

 In our transforming society in South Africa the lack of a true sense of urgency maybe a core reason for the lack of service delivery and ineptitude in some institutions, hospitals, schools and police stations.  Creating the right culture with a sense of urgency is often what is needed.  

John Kotter’s book “ a Sense of Urgency” provided a great deal of information in this blog  

 Neil Wright