A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter

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Description

Most organizational change initiatives fail spectacularly (at worst) or deliver lukewarm results (at best). In his international bestseller Leading Change, John Kotter revealed why change is so hard, and provided an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations.... read more

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Memorable Quotes

“behaving urgently does not mean constantly running around, screaming”
“create a high enough sense of urgency among enough people to set the stage for making a challenging leap into some new direction”
“Mistaking what you might call false urgency from real urgency is a huge problem today”
“False urgency is built on a platform of anxiety and anger”
“While complacency embraces the status quo, false urgency can be filled with new activities. While complacency often has a sort of sleepy quality, false urgency is filled with energy”
“Go check, and you will find people are running and they are stressed out. But this man, and almost everyone else around him, is mistaking the enormous amount of activity as a sign of a real sense of urgency. It's not. It's just frenetic activity, with people trying to cope with fifteen issues, few of which are central to his organization's success (Page 3).”
““Far too often, managers think they have found the solution to this problem when they see lots of energetic activity: where people sometimes run from meeting to meeting, preparing endless PowerPoint presentations; where people have agendas containing a long list of activities; where people seem willing to abandon the status quo; where people seem to have a great sense of urgency. But more often than not, this flurry of behavior is not driven by any underlying determination to move and win, now. It's driven by pressures that create anxiety and anger (Page 6).””
“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 (Page 7).”
“With complacency or false urgency, people look inward, not out, and they miss what is essential for prosperity (Page 8).”
“With a true sense of urgency, people want to come to work each day ready to cooperate energetically and responsively with intelligent initiatives from others (Page 8).”
“A false sense of urgency is pervasive and insidious because people mistake activity for productivity (Page 9).”
“From years of study, I estimate that today more than 70 percent of needed change either fails to be launched, even though some people clearly see the need, fails to be completed, even though some people exhaust themselves trying, or finishes over budget, late, with initial aspirations unmet (Page 12).”
“This with a true sense of urgency empower others who are committed to making any vision a reality by removing obstacles in their path - even if it's difficult to remove those obstacles (Page 14).”
“Complacency is almost always the product of success or perceived success. Complacency can live on long after great success has disappeared (Page 20).”
“When it comes to affecting behavior - creating alert, fast-moving actions that are focused on an important issue, relentlessly launching needed initiatives or cooperating with the initiatives of others, pushing to achieve more ambitious goals despite obstacles, trying to achieve progress each and every day, constantly purging low-value activities so that time is available to do all this - feelings are more influential than thoughts (Page 45).”
“"Great leaders win over the hearts and minds of others." The expression is not, "Great leaders win over the minds of others" (Page 45).”
“For the most part, people like humility and hate arrogance (Page 53).”
““Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for PowerPoint slides and abstract ideas. Stories with a little drama seem to be enjoyed by our feelings and, more importantly, are remembered far longer than any dry slide filled with analytics. Personal stories also create a more intimate atmosphere. Intimacy suggests friends. Friends suggest people who are not trying to take advantage of one another (Page 54).””
“. . . most people seem to feel comfortable with less-than-superman speaking qualities. It makes the speaker more human. It makes the speaker look more vulnerable. Vulnerable means he is less likely to aggressively attack our decisions or beliefs, and that makes us more comfortable. A little awkwardness also feels real, not slick or phony. When we feel someone is being slick or phony, we are much more likely to reject the message (Page 54).”
“Yet few enterprises use the power of the import-data method fully. They bring in antiseptic data that is soon forgotten. They are sporadic, not systematic, in pulling in information. They amass too much for people to absorb or too little to truly inform them (Page 93).”
“It means acting each day with a sense of urgency but having a realistic view of time. It means recognizing that five years may be needed to attain important and ambitious goals, and yet coming to work each day committed to finding every opportunity to make progress toward those goals (Page 118).”
“The goals need to be high enough that they cannot be accomplished through business as usual. The goals also need to make people say "Wow" - but not create a mutiny. The "Wow" must eventually become "Wow, this is a tough but meaningful challenge," and not "Wow, this is stupid" (Page 134).”
“Skeptics, once they have been convinced their opinions are wrong, can become an initiative's biggest champions (Page 147).”
“Regardless of what they say, NoNos are not skeptical but still willing to examine the data. They are not at all inclined to listen to others with an open mind. They won't accept a majority opinion. They have usually learned all sorts of methods to delay action, to make "study groups" not function well, and to aggressively use other disruptive tactics, often unconsciously. As a result, time is lost. Urgency does not happen fast enough and smart enough (Page 155).”
“There are three effective solutions for dealing with NoNos. The first is to keep them from creating mischief by actively distracting these distracters. The second is to push them out of the organization. The third is to expose their behavior in ways that allow natural social forces to reduce or stop it (Page 159).”
“Those with the compulsive drive to move, and win, now - feelings associated with a true sense of urgency - position themselves to achieve more than seems logical or reasonable for themselves, their employers, and the world in which we all live (Page 190).”
“Every situation is different and it is difficult to know what is the absolute best way to start. Whatever you do, look for feedback. If an action does not help, abandon it. If it works well, consider doing more. make something happen. Develop a bit of momentum. Then move on to bigger items, actions that do require planning or scarce resources (Page 191).”