A Sense of Urgency

You know every body talks about the change, every organization, person wants to change. But some times change is hard, we use influential methods to fuel the change. But lot times we fail, when change is not accomplished in time, I mean accelerating,  increasing the speed, with a sense of urgency.
John Kotter's book published from Harvard Business Review Press, talks about four tactics to create a sense of urgency in organization.
It all starts with a sense of urgency, some times we are too complacent and we do not even know it. 
Look at the table below, I tabulated the status and what could be the possible state of the change journey.

		Urgency	Complacency
Recent success state, on Hold		Low	Low
Recent success leading to high complacency- slowed		Low	High
Urgency created, but not deep enough- stopped		High	High
a True Sense of Urgency -Accelerated		High	High

Well what are the four Kotter's Tactics

1. Bring Outside in : We know best people refuse to look outside; an internal focus that misses new opportunities or hazards; a low sense of urgency or high complacency is a change averse organization.
Some tactics to create a sense of urgency by inducing outside in perspective, Kotter suggests to listen to front lines or customer facing employees.Use customer testimonies or invite them to present Voice of Customer and or use industry benchmarks, send people on study tours and there are number of methods we can use to bring the outside in.
 We must open eyes of everybody to know whats happening outside and how far the industry or completion moved on. you might have heard about Mainframe companies who vanished for not noticing or ignoring to look outside.

2.Behave with urgency everyday : Its not about creating urgency and then ignore, you must reiterate every day. Its like what Gandhiji used to say, "that you want to do tomorrow, do it today, that you want to do today, do it now" . Urgency means not creating a stress or running around through meetings, it is all about everybody  not postponing the things for nothing. Clear the decks, what is one particularly important enemy of urgency - a crowded diary or Task list. Be visible urgent, make it as a behaviour, urgency begets urgency.

3.Find opportunity in crises : Market slumps, economic crisis etc are pushing you to wall, then be innovative and find new ways of doing things rather than succumbing to crisis. Use the crisis as an opportunity to create an urgency in the organization.Two ways most organizations adopt to control behaviours to avoid the crisis. One very formal, procedures, policies, processes, systems, checks and balances etc etc...some time it becomes heavy handed and loses the flexibility to change.Other informal, soft, peer influence, attention to detail and most of all organized culture, which gives more space for outward look. Bottom line crisis may actually kill the complacency.
This is my favorite lines in this book " Plans and actions should always focus on others hearts as much or more than their minds"

4.Deal with No Nos: a No No is a more than a skeptic, the person is always ready with 10 reasons stating that the current situation is fine.Dealing with skeptics easier than the No Nos, once they are convinced can keep them enthusiastic, but naive, impulses in check. A No NO selectively chooses information that suggests no action needed, usually  very active in open or behind the scenes, reinforces any contentment with the status quo and kills urgency. First tactic to play is distract the No No, Keep them engaged and distant from the change, immobilize them with social pressures and or finally get rid of them. 
 A No No is dangerous to accelerate the change or to increase the urgency.


An organization will be successful, if they continue to keep the urgency always up, because when a sense of urgency brings a success, that might lead to a complacency. Keep sense of urgency up in  frequent time intervals with a new strategy or find an opportunity  or leverage another crisis or situation. Drive the sense of urgency in to the culture of organization and people, then you continue to flourish on the path of change journey.

INFLUENCERS

• Motivates others to change
• Replaces the bad behaviours with new
• Makes things happen

A powerful book from  authors of crucial conversations.


Whether you are a CEO, Parent, Friend, Social worker you encounter situations where we feel need to make a difference, we probably wish we had a power of influence to bring the change.
Normally, people relay on verbal persuasion, but  "Feel and Change" is more powerful tool to influence, for example a personnel experience and a powerful story told through a vicarious experience makes a significant difference.
Influencer first needs to connect with people and build trust in order to build his momentum for influence. Please refer my earlier blogs on "TRUST",  Communication, Creating winning teams etc.

Once you are able to connect or establish a strong communication channel with the person or people, then you must follow the below process. You need both motivation and ability in a person to change.These can be influenced at three dimensions - Personnel, Social, Structural. We need to first find the vital behaviours and search for the root of the problem. If you can influence the behaviours, they will yield the desired results.


Let us take a case of making sure slum dwellers stays in govt constructed houses for them and not rent them.  The vital behaviour one can observe here as "Renting an apartment instead staying". There could be multiple reasons for this behaviour. 1. To supplement Income, 2. Every body in their Slum Society giving for rent-just follow others 3. This must be far from their work place. Please understand the slum dwellers are generally daily wage workers, mobile vendors, house hold maids etc.




The above reasons fall in the categories mentioned respectively.  There could be multiple solutions to influence these behaviours
Let us explore some thoughts
1.We need to supplement their income - Who stays in the house gets additional benefit of monthly a sum, need not be equivalent to the rents they get. as allowance.
2.Can we identify "leaders" with in community and communicate to them focusing on the benefits of staying in their houses rather going back to slums.
ensure those leaders stay first to create peer pressure.
3.Can we create some small shopping units nearby for each of them to set up their own vending huts.
4.Make sure there is some community events every week to increase social pressure- make living here better - a concept.
5.Are there any structural changes needed like schools, children parks etc to attract the younger generation.

Well if you see we can go wild and try several methods, you also might have observed that these fall in one of the three segments listed.
If one of these things do not work, then you must use the make the change as inevitable or You can identify many vital behaviours in all the three segments and implement all the solutions.

Some famous influencer quotes 
"So Ideas can change the world-but only when coupled with influence-the ability to change hearts, minds and behaviour"

"Influencing human behaviour is one of the most difficult changes faced by leaders"

"If you are truly motivated to make productive changes in your life, don't put down your efforts until you reach the goal, whether dealing with recalcitrant teen, doggedly resistant co-workers, or a personal frustration that 'no one ever wants to hear my view'"

Despite all adds one must be in driver's seat to influence the change, it does not matter one needs to be popular or famous like Bill Gates or Azim Premji.
In this book you find many "insignificant" people making significant improvements in people lives ranging from nutritious food shortages to changing criminal behaviours.
No Matter who you are, or what you do, you will never learn a more valuable or important set of principles and skills. One you tap into the power of influence, you can reach out and help others work smarter, grow faster, live, look, and feel better, even save lives.

The Sky is the only limit for an INFLUENCER.