“Raising urgency” was the very first step Kotter outlined in the hugely successful eight-step framework first expressed in Leading Change. But since then, he explains, it has become increasingly apparent that promoting that sense of urgency is the toughest step of all – not to mention that one without which even the most brilliant, high-powered initiatives will “sputter and die.”
At a time when most organisations accept that change is increasingly continuous, rather than merely episodic, Kotter explains why organisations must turn and why urgency must become a core, sustained capability.
However, he points out that organisations must learn the difference between true and false urgency. False urgency is frenetic, panic-stricken, energy-sapping. True urgency is steady, unrelenting, purposeful, intense but not body- and soul-destroying. True urgency involves trying to do things a bit better all the time.
Complacency and denial are the enemies of true urgency.
In this excellent little book, Kotter explains:
- How to go beyond "the business case" for change to overcome the fear and anger that can suppress urgency
- Ways to ensure that your actions and behaviours - not just your words - communicate the need for change
- How to keep fanning the flames of urgency even after your transformation effort has scored some early successes
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