Research

Bringing a sense of urgency to your business

John Kotter knows your organization needs to change. His latest book, "A Sense of Urgency," delves into the how-to required of managers needing to embark on that first step, avoiding pitfalls along the way. Increasing a sense of urgency is the toughest of the steps leading to effective change, and Kotter's new book lays out a road map that will be an eye-opener to middle and top managers who, the author contends, often are blinded to the two main obstacles: complacency and a false sense of urgency.

2008-11-05

John Kotter knows your organization needs to change. His latest book, "A Sense of Urgency," delves into the how-to required of managers needing to embark on that first step, avoiding pitfalls along the way. "Creating a sense of urgency" is the first of eight steps outlined in Kotter's business blockbuster, "Leading Change." Kotter, a bestselling business author and professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on leadership and change. And he's seen so many companies take the mantra of "change" and run with it, only to run into walls blocking effective change -- some come from the top of their organization, some from the bottom and many times from the middle. Increasing a sense of urgency is the toughest of the steps leading to effective change, and Kotter's new book lays out a road map that will be an eye-opener to middle and top managers who, the author contends, often are blinded to the two main obstacles: complacency and a false sense of urgency. Easy success leads to complacency Kotter introduces us to organizations both large and small he has studied, where top management has tried and failed to launch this most important roadmap to success. He encounters a dangerous sense of complacency in the most successful companies, where CEOs and employees are riding high on a wave of profits and technological processes. So inwardly focused are they, it's easy to pass around praise and celebratory rewards without looking down the road and outside the box, where looming global competition is in full swing. It's only a matter of time for any company until the competition overtakes them, unless they have adopted and ingrained a sense of urgency from the top down. How do we recognize complacency? Often it isn't easy. People are busy, profits are good, processes are in place and proceeding smoothly. When initiatives are proposed -- for example, a business case presented by an IT manager seeking a widespread and expensive upgrade to facilitate business, the accounting department balks. The CEO may be on board because he/she understands the long view and the need for change. But at any level, there are those employees who feel threatened by the new plan. They are quick to jump on reasons why it won't work, or can't possibly be completed by the target date, or will create other inefficiencies. Meetings and task forces are formed, postponed, dragged out, held back by the naysayers. E-mails travel up and down the chain, requiring more study and more time. Meanwhile, business is good and people continue to be busy within their own departments. After awhile the cost estimates change. People miss important meetings on the initiative. More criticism rears from the ranks. Months go by and little or nothing is accomplished. Eventually, the initiative either dies or is implemented without a strong sense of urgency, and finishes late and at much greater cost than initial estimates foresaw. Eventually a nimbler competitor comes along to stomp this company into the dirt. Beware the false sense of urgency The enemy of urgency, Kotter states, is a full appointment calendar. Here, the need for flexibility is key, as is the smarts and guts needed to reprioritize less important tasks, or purge them altogether. The CEO committed to urgency is a role model for those working around and below him/her. They must transmit the imperative in all ways -- through effective communication, visible presence around the organization and personal passion. That CEO also must emphasize the need for employees at all levels to focus outward from the company, and keep a listening ear to lower-level employees who have a closer connection to clients and customers. To buy into the need for urgency, employees should feel empowered and not stressed. If there is no clear understanding of the need for change and specific messages and goals, the result will be frantic activity born of anger and frustration. The activity level will be high but results will be slow and often misdirected. Once the sense of urgency is presented and communicated effectively, there must be immediate follow-up and managers must not fall into a "I'll check my planner" mentality. Other tasks must be rescheduled; don't plan to follow-up in a few weeks or a month. When the boss communicates a need to someone and receives no answer in a day, jump in with another urgent communication and don't let time go by -- time when your employees will become preoccupied with the 100 other e-mails and projects that appear on the schedule. Change the schedule to put this initiative at the top of your priority list, and don't let it slide, Kotter urges. How to communicate urgency "Underlying the urgent behavior that makes organizations succeed in a turbulent world is not only a set of thoughts," Kotter writes. "It's also a set of feelings: a compulsive determination to move, and win, now." In other words, don't just appeal to the rational side of people -- aim for the heart. Often the way to do this is by paring down PowerPoint presentations and long, dreary meetings with slick speakers rather, shorten presentations and season them with stories and appeals to workers' pride in their work and threats to future success. Look for that element of the story that will compel employees into action. History is filled with examples of this successful method of communication. "Martin Luther King Jr. did not reduce anger among blacks and contentment or anxiety among whites by announcing on the Washington Mall, 'I have a strategic plan.'" The tens of millions listening to that speech understood. "Urgency went up, essential action followed, and legislation that would probably have failed the year before was passed into law." Bottom Line: Here are the steps to increasing a true sense of urgency, according to Kotter:

• Create action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities -- all by focusing on the heart and not just the mind.
• Bring the outside in. Be on the lookout for compelling data, people, video, Web sites and other messages from outside the company. Reconnect internal activity with external opportunities and hazards.
• Behave with urgency every day. Demonstrate your own sense of urgency always in meetings, interactions, memos and e-mail and do so as visibly as possible to as many people as possible.
• Find opportunity in crisis. Always be alert to see if crises can be a friend, not just an enemy, in order to destroy complacency.
• Deal with the NoNos. Remove or neutralize all the relentless urgency-killers, people who are not skeptics but are determined to keep a group complacent or to create destructive urgency.

Management Strategy