Organizational urgency vs. activity; why you want urgency

By William Seidman I recently revisited the work of Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter. He’s a prolific author and his latest work, A Sense of Urgency, focuses on urgency in organizations. He discusses the difference between urgency and activity, and how creating a sense of urgency is beneficial to a work environment. Dr. Kotter has interesting ideas – he points out that activity is not the same as productivity. Activity can be unfocused while urgency is the act of moving deliberately and quickly forward to a specific goal. In tough economic times, activity tend to increase while urgency decreases. Panic sets in and the sense of urgency is lost. This unraveling can be avoided, and an organization can actually come out much stronger. The key for organizations is to retain a clear approach to optimizing in the face of pressure: maintan a sense of urgency versus blind activity.]]>