A True Sense of Urgency

June 1, 2010

Kotter, J. (2008).  A sense of urgency.  Boston: Harvard Business Press.

When people have a true sense of urgency, they think that action on critical issues is needed now, not eventually, not when it fits easily into a schedule.  Now means making real progress every single day.  Critically important means challenges that are central to success or survival, winning or losing.  A sense of urgency is not an attitude that I must have the project team meeting today, but that the meeting must accomplish something important today.

Urgent behavior is not driven by a belief that all is well or that everything is a mess, but instead, that the world contains great opportunities and great hazards.  Even more so, urgent action is not created by feelings of contentment, anxiety, frustration, or anger, but by a gut-level determination to move, and win now (Kotter, p. 7-8).

A Sense of Urgency is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  To borrow this resource or any other resource, please go to the resource search page http://164.107.48.88/winnebago/index.asp?lib=???

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