Urgency

Happy Friday,

Urgency drives productivity, adaptability, customer satisfaction, competitiveness, innovation, retention, and goal achievement. An organization or team with a strong sense of urgency will outperform those with less.

Urgency can be gauged by things like the frequency of meetings, the number of people in meetings, the number of people involved in making a decision, and the number of days or weeks it takes to schedule a conversation. The higher those numbers, the more friction is working against urgency and performance. 

That’s why startups are so agile and stimulating. The rawness of the competitive marketplace, the excitement of the mission, and the need for speed are still unmediated by bad habits and CYA. No one wants to schedule a room full of people to wring their hands over a decision or to wait three weeks for a conversation on Zoom. Decisions get made fast, knowing adjustments can be made later if needed. 

In general, urgency evaporates with scale for two reasons: 1) Lack of scrutiny - friction doesn't get questioned and becomes habitual, and 2) fear of being second-guessed. Decide by yourself, and all the risk is yours. Fill the room to diffuse the risk. Involve everyone, and you won’t offend anyone. People will almost always sacrifice urgency to avoid personal risk, whether supervisors or c-suite. 

Gutsy leaders drive urgency by:

1.     Setting Clear Goals with Firm Deadlines. 

2.     Leading by Example: They project their own strong sense of urgency. Setting the tone.

3.     Empowering Others: They give more people the authority, resources, and support they need to make them more decisive and autonomous, then push them to do it.

4.     Removing the Risk of Being Second-Guessed: They let people know they’ll always have their back, provided their decisions are true to the organization’s core values and don’t create a legal or reputation risk.

5.     Removing Barriers: They eliminate obstacles or bottlenecks that impede rapid progress. For example, not every meeting needs to be 60 minutes long. Make your default meeting time 30 minutes instead. It's a no-brainer. Or send a solid symbolic message by removing all the chairs in the conference room.

Many organizations and teams stand flat-footed, unprepared to compete at their best. Increased urgency puts your organization or team into its most agile and athletic stance. 

Good luck!

Dave

Your feedback and blowback are always welcome here: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

If you're clever, you'll find all past topics @ goodnewsfriday.com

Written by me, not ChatGPT: speed assist and blunder avoidance by Grammarly