Behave with urgency every day

When organisations don't attend to external threats, they will eventually become complacent and blind towards them.

As a first step, leaders should be proactive in collecting information.

• Lower-level personnel are often the closest to the customer and will know w...

Great leaders know that a crisis has the opportunity to create an atmosphere of a true sense of urgency. With good leadership, a crisis can be used to wake people up out of their passive routines.

Make the crisis visible, specific, and big enough to require creative...

The NoNo is someone who is armed with reasons why the current situation is fine, why the problems others see don't exist, and why you need more data before moving into action.

A NoNo is not the same as a sceptic. A sceptic is essential to show out poor ideas but can bec...

Collecting information is insufficient to spark a sense of urgency. Therefore, it is vital to share the information.

• Tell a compelling story. Dry facts may appeal to the mind but are not enough to appeal to the hearts of the people in your organisation...

A real solution does not involve running from meeting to meeting or creating a huge list of trivial activities. True urgency focuses on critical issues driven by a deep determination to win.

There are four tactics we can use to counter complacency and instil a culture w...

You may be aware that your organisation needs change. You may even know what the change should be: a new strategy or reorganisation or a new IT system. However, change comes too slowly, or the implementation has come late and with much frustration.

The problem is complacency. We und...