A Sense of Urgency

What a great book to highlight some of the very simple issues we face in a business regarding urgency. If you are a start-up's, fast growing organisations, large businesses or government sector time wastage and a lack of urgency is one of the single biggest killers of great strategy and when reading this book you will feel both liberated with knowledge and angry (or disappointed) at the number of times you have fallen for the traps of time wasters. An easy read that should be part of every employees induction process to ensure they know what is really expected of them. Read, absorb and then clean out your organisation of time sinks!" The best part is that Kotter provides 4 core tactics for creating urgency in your organisation. Each tactic is supported by anecdotes and detailed tools which makes the book a real 'how to' guide. The essence of the book can be distilled into: - Bring the outside in - Behave with urgency every day - Find opportunity in crisis - Deal with NoNo's I have noticed some reviews that indicated this does not add value, and yes...there have been other books that cover similar topics. Yes...time management has been around since time itself...but Kotter brings a new dimension to the challenges of organisations and one that if implemented will add significant value to employees, leaders and businesses. Give it a try and you will be surprised!

"the number one problem they have is all about creating a sense of urgency" A Sense Of Urgency by John Kotter is, simply put, a sequel of his previous book; "Our Iceberg is Melting". "Our Iceberg is Melting" is a fictional story of emperor penguins who fight for survival during the threat of change. The eight steps to overcome and embrace change are 1.) A sense of urgency 2.) The guiding team 3.) Visions and strategies 4.) Communication 5.) Empowerment 6.) Short-term wins 7.) Never letting up 8.) Making change stick. This book is focused on the first step, a sense of urgency. As Kotter wrote "Most organizations handle step 1 poorly". Without a "true" sense of urgency, the following 7 steps to embrace change is a cumbersome task. And more importantly, because "we are moving from episodic to continuous change. With this shift, urgency will move from being an important issue every few years to being a powerful asset all the time." Contents 1. It all starts with a sense of urgency As I mentioned earlier that a sense of urgency is vital to a process of change. John Kotter also indicated the two most hazardous enemies, complacency and false urgency. 2. Complacency and false urgency Kotter digged deep into the two enemies, complacency and false urgency. He elaborated the cause of them, how do the complacent (and people with false of urgency) think? What do they feel? How do they behave? He, later, wrote on how to find complacency and false urgency. This chapter is truly alarming and you might not like it! 3. Increasing true urgency The critical point of the chapter is that true urgency aims for the "heart". A true sense of urgency is "a set of feelings: a compulsive determination to move, and win, now"; not hundreds of PowerPoint slides with graphs, charts, and researches. He concluded the chapter with four tactics (the following four chapters). 4. Tactic One: bring the outside in "Tactic One is based on the observation that organizations of any size or age tend to be too internally oriented." He suggested us seven useful ways to "bring the outside in" to create a sense of urgency in the organization. 5. Tactic Two: behave with urgency everyday To make sure any action is not just a flavour of a month, we need to behave urgently everyday. Behaving urgently does not mean panicking and Kotter tells you how. I personally like the term "urgent patience" because "behaving urgently does not mean constantly running around, screaming "Faster-faster". Urgent patience means acting each day with a sense of urgency but having a realistic view of time. 6. Tactic Three: find opportunity in crises There are two camps of people amid crisis, one always looks for crisis avoidance, crisis management, damage control, budgets, budget reviews, and financial control system. The other looks for a burning platform; they view crises as not necessary bad. With fire spreading, they move, status quo eliminated and new beginning is possible. Which one is correct? Yes, neither. Kotter wrote on the pitfalls of the two and how to balance and how to make the most out of crises. 7. Tactic Four: deal with NoNos NoNo is a character in "Our Iceberg is Melting" who always say, as the name suggests, "No no". They are resistant to change, slow down movement, and kill urgency. NoNos are not skeptics, they are worse. And Kotter wrote on how NOT to deal with them and how to deal with them effectively. 8. Keeping urgency up True urgency leads to success with leads to complacency. This chapter tells you how to avoid this problem. 9. The future: begin today ... Next, I'll try to briefly rate this book on a scale of ideal business book or a book that is "easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience" Ease of Understanding: 8/10: This book is focused on a single issue which helps you understand the subject thoroughly. The drawback is that the (real or unreal) supporting stories or examples are written lightly or fiction-like with no reference or supporting data. They do not support the contents well enough. Distinction: 8/10: With hundreds (if not thousands) of books already on the topic of change, this small book gives you a more elaborated and detailed view on the sub-topic of change. There are also far too many titles about the rate of change in business but most of them focus on technological side of change. This is a book on a fast pace business environment with very little mention on the Internet and not a single word (I believe) on Google, My Space, Twitter, etc. Practicality: 7/10: Although there is no step-by-step instruction to create a true sense of urgency, the book sufficiently provides you with valuable and practical guidelines. Reliability: 5/10: There are many stories supporting the subjects but they are not truly convincing. They are (I hate to say) a bit too short and too fictional with no data or reference as I mentioned. Moreover, the one strategy (aim at the heart) and four tactics are mainly from the words and experience of the author. Simple said, the only reliable factor of the book is the author himself. I wish there were more concrete facts. Insight: 5/10: I feel that the author wanted this book to be easy to read and easy to grasp the essence of it. Kotter believes that to create a sense of urgency in an organization, we need to communicate to the heart not to the mind with too much data and analysis (two hundred slides PowerPoint presentation, for instance). However, that is suitable for communication in the business setting with very little time to spare and to comprehend the message. Intellectual readers (not me) might expect more. Reading Experience: 6/10: The two most important words in the book are "urgent" and "now". This book will put you in the state of emergency. One point of this book that made me feel uncomfortable is that it is, from my judgement, 80% pessimistic and 20% optimistic. Overall: 6.5/10: If you have read "Our Iceberg is Melting" and had a problem with the first step (like I did), you should definitely buy the book. If you have not but feel that your organisation is either stagnant and slow (complacent), or chaotic with no result (false urgency) and your organisation does not respond to change well enough, this book is a good start.

Great read for anyone who feels disorganized or in need of how to prioritize your workload.

This is a very practical guide for any employee, at any level, who feels the need to effect positive change in her/his organization. Obviously, there has to somebody at the executive level who shares those feelings with the will to make the necessary changes come to fruition. The book provides the reasons, based on John Kotter's extensive experience with companies and their leaders, on why very smart people can become complacent, slow down change or sabotage efforts to bring about necessary changes. The book also provides a list of actions one can take to counter these negative forces, while also providing guidance on being cognizant of "false urgency" where people undertake non-productive activities in the hope that their actions will be seen by others as productive. On the bad side, many of the sentences in the book are repeated so it seems a dull read to start with, but as you progress through the book, the nuggets come out towards the end.

Excelente libro!!!! Llego antes de lo esperado!!! Me encantó!!!

Good read Would be good to limit people attending accident appointments when they could be allocated spar slots

Twelve years after publishing his main book "Leading Change", in which he had identified the seven necessary steps of any successful change programme, Kotter now focuses on the step one. Why and how to create a sense of urgency? As always with Kotter, it is clear, structured, clever and full of relevant examples.

Was waiting and trying to get this book for a long time. Its a v good book. Kotter expresses all of us in simple words. Do read all his books in the sequence- from "Our Iceberg" to "change".

Good book