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.