A sense of urgency is a critical ingredient of successful change
initiatives. Creating a sense of urgency is the first step of the well-known Kotter’s change
model. A sense of urgency dispels complacency and generates momentum.
As a leader, you may be asking yourself,
“how can I generate a sense of urgency for my change initiative?”
In this video, we will go through 4 practical ways to create
a sense of urgency and lead successful change. Let’s go!
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The cries of “fire!.... fire!... fire!” rang through the air. It was a sunny humid afternoon
and a fire had just broken out on the top floor. It was remote location with no fire
service nearby... and I was in charge. This is true story. I still recall the very tangible
sense of urgency everyone on the team had as we worked together to put out the fire.
A sense of urgency communicates the importance of acting immediately. When leading an organisation
through change, particularly through significant change, a sense of urgency is essential.
It compels everyone to act now. It triggers collaboration and forces focused action.
Here are 4 things you can do create a sense of urgency in your organisation.
Lead relevant change
Shock and awe
Ensure convergence
Burning platform approach
Lead relevant change
A great determinant of how engaged anyone will be with a change initiative is how relevant
the change is to them. When an initiative is irrelevant, or its relevance is not articulated,
campaigns, gimmicks, pitches or even threats will not create a sense of urgency.
As leaders, we must understand the perspective of our stakeholders. An initiative that has
little or no relevance to stakeholders who need to contribute to its success,
is challenged. Leaders need to understand
the perspectives of their stakeholders, and lead change that is relevant to their stakeholders.
Shock and awe
In a fast paced, information heavy world our sanity is preserved by our ability to filter
out noise. The tenth person walks past you on the way to the station... you don’t care, it is noise.
A weekly marketing email promoting a service you don’t need and don’t
recall subscribing to... do you care? Not really, you simply delete or ignore.
The ad that plays before the YouTube video you want to watch,
it doesn’t distract. You wait for the countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then hit skip ad.
A change initiative needs to stand out to in order to create a sense of urgency and
establish the need for immediate action. It needs to be bold and aspirational. The initiative needs
to energise your people. To create a sense of urgency, you need to convey the message that this
is different, and you need to act now. As the saying goes, “go big or go home”.
Ensure convergence
Water cooler talk can provide an insight into the coherence of an organisation’s strategy.
When the message from leaders is consistent with the informal “water cooler talk” of co-workers,
there is convergence. Convergence means multiple teams, multiple projects, multiple geographies
and even, multiple organisations are aligned towards a single objective.
An environment of convergence creates a natural sense of urgency for any change initiative.
When everyone is aligned on what needs to be done right now, the result is immediate focused action.
I recall a large successful change initiative I was part of.
It involved multiple projects, multiple teams in different countries.
However, there was a clear sense of urgency for the initiative. All projects and all teams were
aligned to a single objective with a single timeframe. The objective was clear and the
message from leadership was consistent with the informal “water cooler talk”.
Organisational convergence established a sense of urgency.
The burning platform
The burning platform approach for creating a sense of urgency is a classical strategy
adopted by many change management professionals. However, in my opinion this strategy needs to be
used with caution. An overuse of the burning platform strategy can lead to change fatigue.
The true story behind the “burning platform”.
It was July 6, 1988 on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea. An explosion causes a massive fire
on the rig. The blaze shot 300 feet into the air and could be seen from 62 miles away. The workers
locked themselves in a room on the oil rig, hoping that emergency systems will keep them safe.
Soon enough, it was clear that the original plan was not going to work. They needed to change.
Three men made their way to the edge of the platform and looked down in the ocean.
They had two options.
Stay on the burning platform, and hope for the best
Jump into the ocean, and possibly die from hypothermia
Two of the men chose to jump and they were severely injured. They survived because
of the seaside rescue operation. The man who stayed on the burning platform did not survive.
Good leaders avoid the burning platform scenario altogether. With attention to what is
important we can avoid the need for organisations to make near impossible choices.
When all else fails and organisations are faced with a true burning platform scenario, leaders
need to paint a clear picture of reality. When the risk of maintaining the status quo
is just too high the need to jump into action is essential.
There you have it, four ways to create urgency and lead successful change.
How would you go about creating a sense of urgency within your organisation? Leave your suggestion
in the comments and I will do my best to respond.
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Thank you and see you soon in another video.