Book Review: A Sense of Urgency

I've just finished reading a new book from John Kotter who has written a number of good books, especially focused on cultural change.  Kotter's new book, A Sense of Urgency, is one of those frustrating books that's very topical and insightful, yet ends up feeling a bit like a dinner party that's run too long.

That's not Kotter's fault - many business management books are based on one central idea - in this case the importance that everyone in your organization have a sense of urgency about success - that is correct yet hard to "flesh out".  What should probably be a long journal article or perhaps a short e-book becomes a 150 page book that feels a bit padded because at the end of the day, there's only so much you can say and recommend about the particular topic.  Malcolm Gladwell, with Tipping Point and Blink, has written two such books. Again, this is not a disparagement of the material, just the formats that are necessary given publishing standards.  But enough of my discourse about the book's length.

Working as I do with mid and senior level management to affect change, I can tell you in no uncertain terms that Mr. Kotter is right - most businesses need a sense of urgency - a focus on what's really important and putting the effort and time into what's important.  He tells a story that I face all the time - an executive tells him how important a new initiative is, but then can't schedule time to meet or plan that initiative for six weeks.  If something is important, then demonstrate it by making time for it now.  Here's how Kotter describes a sense of urgency - "A real sense of urgency is a highly positive and highly focused force.  Because it naturally directs you to  truly alert to what's really happening, it rarely leads to a race to deal with the trivial, to pursue pet projects of minor significance to the larger organization, or to tackle important issues in uninformed, potentially dangerous ways."

Kotter suggests four tactics for increasing urgency in your organization:

1. Bring outside reality into groups that are too inwardly focused by creating stories and emotionally compelling experiences
2. Behave with true urgency every single day
3. Look for the upside possibilities in crises, seeing a threat as a potential opportunity to destabilize an overly stable organization
4. Confront the NoNos.  Don't accept that an organization must put up with people who relentlessly kill urgency, whose reaction to any new idea  "no, no you see..."

Kotter also suggests that the most important enemy of urgency is a crowded appointment calendar.  "When you are going from one meeting to the next, all on different topics, all run inefficiently, attitudes and feelings about urgency drain out through sheer exhaustion.  Clutter undermines true urgency.  Fatigue undermines true urgency."  How do executives and managers behave with true urgency?

1. Purge and delegate
2. Move with speed and purpose
3. Speak and act with passion
4. Match words and deeds (we call this walking the talk)

Kotter goes on to describe how to communicate and demonstrate a sense of urgency to the organization, and identifies a couple of challenges to urgency.  My two favorites are 1) bring me more data to support this change (all the data in the world will never be enough) and 2) what he calls the NoNos, people who simply can't say yes to anything.

Kotter's book is one of those "take your medicine" books that many people will say just reinforces the obvious point that every business needs more urgency and focus.  This is something I suspect everyone will reach violent agreement on, just as soon as they can plan the meeting to do so.

I'd recommend that you read this book, but given how full your calendar is you probably won't find the time.  So, just focus on building a greater sense of urgency in your work and your organization. Start by determining what's important, eliminating things that aren't, and then moving with speed and purpose and acting with passion about the things you believe are important.  Hopefully, you'll start a trend in your business.

Comments

[Modesty Press]

While you are having so much of a "sense of urgency" and "creating crises," you can have crises about all the people dropping dead of heart attacks, destroying their marriages, and turning out children on drugs and pregant while still in high school. Then you can act urgently on all these problems.

[AP]

I was thinking about getting this book but debated on whether the author really had to write a book about this topic. It didnt seem like there would be that much material to fill a book. You just re-enforced that notion.

[Max Mckeown]

I tend to agree... which is why I wrote just one mini-chapter "A CRISIS IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE" on the subject in my new book "The Truth About Innovation"... there are free versions on scribd.com or you could even buy it ;)