Do these 5 things to build “Sense of Urgency” in you and your organization!
What are biggest questions organizations and you are dealing with:
- Why in most of the organizations, they start working double the speed when a Production issue happens?
- Why do they start taking actions when there is a customer complaining and making noise?
- Why is that when we have Ideas which we think will change the world does not ever happen?
- Why do we feel under pressure when we feel we have less time and more to do?
- Why is always there is a delay in taking decisions particularly when we want to implement change?
- Why does people and organization lose focus from their Goal?
Even though we have plenty of guidelines on the internet on how to bring Productivity , why still we fail to bring the Change!
The answer to this is how we create the Sense of Urgency in our thinking and develop this.
How is Sense of urgency is different from Urgency
Urgency means something is urgent, it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
and
Sense of urgency means you always see things urgent.
Meaning you don’t really wait for a situation when you are asked to deal with the situation urgently.
This means you respect time, you have always a deadline in your mind.
This also means you are proactive and NOT reactive.
This also means you understand the goals which we have set is important and you know the consequence if this goal is not achieved.
Urgency is a combination of thoughts, feelings, and actual behavior. The thoughts are, there are are great opportunities out there, great hazards. The feelings are a gut-level determination that we’re going to do something now, we’re going to do something to win. And the behavior is this hyper-alertness to what’s going on. It’s a sense of coming to work each and every day with a commitment to making something happen that’s on the important issues.
-JOHN KOTTER
So how should I or my organization develop the sense of urgency
You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life. H Jackson Brown Jr
Number 1 → Top Management commitment
Without the commitment from the top management, the vision and changes can not cascade everywhere. People often look at the leaders of their organization to follow. Top management need to establish a sense of urgency.
John Kotter says — Establishing a sense of urgency means you’re trying to change the status quo, to push employees to no longer be complacent and to help employees see that it is critical to move forward sooner rather than later.
Number 2 → Challenge your Team
Everyone in the organization need to understand that we all work for creating value for customer. Creating solution which is useful and fulfilling the needs of the customer should be the topmost priority. Empower your team to challenge the management and question their leaders on why we are doing this.
In a complex product development especially which is just not an enhancement but development from the scratch, a sense of urgency is very much needed. In today’s fast changing world, if there is no sense of urgency then there is a high possibility that customer will leave you soon.
Number 3 → Measure the outcome of not only for your team but also for your management.
It is important for you and your team to constantly measure your performance and we should ask back if we improving and align with the change which is happening in the market today.
Look for these numbers:
- What slows down the progress?
- What are skill set we are lacking and what can we do about it?
- What customers and end users are saying about the product/services?
- Why production issues are coming and what can do to reduce the occurrences?
- Is the application easy to use? If not what can we do about it?
Call for action and set deadline and ensure each of the team members understand why we are measuring these.
Number 4 → Create a culture of transparency
When the organization grows then it becomes difficult to understand what are the things organization is doing to sustain the business. Make the business goals transparent to everyone and explain it in a way which is understandable to everyone ( from top leaders to freshers in the organization)
Create a campaign to ensure everyone is aligned to the goal and constantly look for feedbacks from your employees.
Number 5 → Hire Leaders and not managers
Organization is built with people and when forming the team it is essential to keep a check on what people are being hired. Have people who can inspire people, give feedback , can take feedback, is action oriented, protects the company’s values and finally keep creating a sense of urgency.
Right people can take your company to next level
“When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room. Every conversation you have about a decision, a proposal, or a piece of market information has to be filled with you saying, “What if?” and “Why not?” and “How come?”
― Jack Welch, Winning
Conclusion:
Continuous feedback and continuous improvement is the way towards building the sense of urgency. Keep learning about the latest trend, market and make your employees engaged in this initiative. But we need to keep a deadline for it else it will just be a dream.
“The trouble is you think you have time.” Buddha
Originally published at softwaretheagileway.blogspot.com.
