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Almost all leaders quote about the need of sense of urgency. This is true of all organizations and all companies in all walks of different industries. Though quoted as indispensible attribute of a successful and scalable organization, very few give comments and references are available on ‘what creates it’. You ask a few people in the industry and following responses are what you are likely to get.

  • It is a culture thing, you can drive it on your own
  • Depends on the attitude of the people in an organization
  • If people are held to their accountabilities, sense of urgency is shown, otherwise, no
  • It depends on a leader, if he drives it, sense of urgency becomes an attitude of organization
  • If leader shows urgency in what he does, organization follows in footstep and demonstrates a sense of urgency

There are very few comments and references are available, where comparative impacts of self driven and created sense of urgency. Usually texts are focused on significance of self urgency than discussing merits of one type as compared to another type. I believe impacts of one kind of sence of urgency (self driven) to other kind (created) are very different and merit a discussion here.

There are myriad tools and tricks, systems and processes and managerial behaviors possible to create a sense of urgency in the people. Focus group, war rooms, motivational talks, appraisal specifics, leader talk, etc are a few of those. All of these create a sense of urgency, which is expected to benefit the organization. There are many more tools of the trade, which can ensure a sense of urgency in the people of an organization.

So, what happens, once a sense of urgency is created using these tools of the trade, organization stay on course (and demonstrare sense of urgency at all times). Sadly not. Majority of times a sense of urgency, which is result of a procedural intervention or system impementation, fizzles out soon. Or else, even if it does not completely fizzles out, it needs continuous investment into more interventions to keep sense of urgency in organization.

How do you get out of this strange cycle of more investments needed in the organization to keep sense of urgency going? Make sense of urgency a people driven thing. Let people think, believe, act and follow on the lines of

  • If I don’t do this on time, it will is inherently bad for me and for organization
  • If I don’t deliver as promised, I am not a good professional
  • No matter what happens, a commitment is a commitment, and it has to be met
  • What kind of an individual one is, if he does not rush to complete a task on time

Question is ‘how do you let people think, act and follow on these lines?’

My experience has been that procedural interventions and implementations rarely get people to think, act and follow on these lines. I believe that sense of urgency is not a attitude, which can be created in a sustained fashion by implementing processes. Let’s take an example of one of those process, let’s say performance appraisal. One could argue that right design and implementation of appraisal should be rewarding an employee for his sense of urgency. If an appraisal system is granular enough, maybe, a reward or appreciation of an employee for demonstration of sense of urgency can be done. But even that would be a recognition of only ‘an’ example of sense of urgency. It will be a result of one or more specific events, where a manager had its reason to focus and he realized that employee was on top of those situations. As soon as those reasons will be gone, appraisal system will miss those points and in turn employee will have no specific incentive or disincentives to demonstrate a sense of urgency.

Sense of urgency is a relationship thing. Why is it that all of us carry an uncomprimisable sense of urgency when it comes to our personal matters (specifically urgent matters)? It is because there is an equation of relationship and its respect. Nothing is more important to people than respecting someone (or something) and being respected. The point most of the organization miss is, this relationship needs to be cultivated. And, please mind the word here is cultivated, not created. Once you establish a relationship between employee and its work, between employee and its eco-system, you create a permanent reason for sense of urgency. Cultivating this relationship (specifically the one around trust and respect) is not simple. A transactional relationship is far more simple to get established than one based on respect.

People tend to respond to a relationship, which is based on their need of security and safety. This need of safety and security is not transactional in nature. It is mostly personal and psycological. People respect relationships, where they find safety. People marginalize relationships, which are transactional in nature.

Question is ‘How do you let people and organizational elements  create a relationship with each other, which is based on safety and security and in turn respect’.

Find an answer to that question and you will have a sense of urgency established in the organization, which will far exceed and sustain any procedural intervention or system can implement.

In one of the future blogs, I will cover, ‘What do you do to cultivate a genuine relationship between employees and organizational elements, which is based on respect’