Urgency- Unnecessary Evil!

“Urgency?means paying the details the attention they deserve, with the respect they deserve, without delay.” ― Richie Norton

Are you constantly running from one meeting to another? Or letting your inbox, Slack alerts, or calendar dictate how you work? When everything is urgent, we end up focusing on doing small, day-to-day tasks rather than on achieving more significant, impactful things.

Having a sense of urgency is critical for organizational success. Speed is a competitive advantage. Teams who make fast decisions, experiment often, and move to market swiftly tend to be more successful. However, there’s a big difference between having a sense of urgency and a workplace culture in which everything is always urgent.

Dealing with conflicting priorities is not something new.?Already in 2011, most executives (64%) complained that they had too many conflicting priorities.

Rushing and running in many directions doesn’t mean your team is making progress. There’s a difference between speed and hysteria or anxiety. Operating under constant pressure – constantly reacting to external events – turns urgency into a toxic force.?

Urgent is lazy. It’s easier to label everything as urgent than to take the time to prioritize. Urgent removes accountability from managers who pass all the pressure to the team.

An always-urgent culture focuses on busyness, not outcome. It rewards people who are constantly busy doing something instead of encouraging them to pause, reflect, and think.

As Basecamp CEO Jason Fried wrote in?It doesn’t have to be crazy at work, “It’s no wonder people are working longer, earlier, later, on weekends, and whenever they have a spare moment. People can’t get work done at work anymore.”

There are always going to be moving pieces. Life is messy. No matter how much you plan, things usually get more complicated. And then there’s people: someone’s priorities, delays, emotions, or agendas always get in the way.

Which leads me to the the urgency trap. Urgency trap can be defined as the point wherein working with too much or not enough urgency. The reactive zone is where urgency is acute and constant. On the other hand, the inactive zone is where there’s an absence of urgency.

Urgency, when used in moderation, creates traction. It helps break inertia and moves team members into action. However, when urgent is the normal, teams lose focus. They chase shiny objects rather than tackle strategic projects

How do you achieve it?

1. Redefine what is urgent! Whether the topic is Immediate or Important?
2. Look at Impact / Effort Matrix( Eisenhower's Principle).The most important task will be Urgent and Important; followed by Not Urgent and Important ( as Frank Covey says- this is the sweet spot; you are proactive, decreasing the problems). Urgent and Not Important are your distractions which I define as Mind, Energy & Time sappers; Not urgent and not important are tasks which should be binned!
3. Who do you answer to/ stakeholder? Conflicting priorities arise because of non clarity who do they answer to/ where does the maximum effect lie!
4. Define a framework for cross functional priorities. Start with the end in mind: What matters the most to the organization? Establishing criteria for prioritizing work will save your team many headaches, mainly when conflict arises.
5. Its a zero sum game. Time is a finite resource. Parkinson's law is?the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."? That’s why prioritization is critical to focus energy and resources on the initiatives that matter. New priorities should replace existing ones, not be added to an already extensive to-do list.
6. Prepare for contingency plans. Discerning self-inflicted emergencies from real ones is crucial. It promotes a calmer working environment and induces a sense of urgency when it’s really needed.
7. Act with intention- Model the behavior you want to see on your team and hold yourself to the same standards of prompt work submissions.?

Irrespective we will still come across many Individuals, Manager's and Leaders who will make everything that had to be completed day before yesterday. Don't get me wrong, these are some of the most committed , highly productive in their own work yet this urgency often creates a negative impact. How do you manage such people/situations is also important!

How do you help them recognize their impact on others.?Show how collaboration pays off for everyone —?including them. Praise for the process of collaboration , planning rather than quick activity! Get them to look at the overall consequences of the action quickly , negative and positive both! Two of the most effective means proven to help such people in organizations is to pair them with long term thinkers to get the balance right & mentor on how to separate urgency with what needs to be done.

Having a sense of urgency is critical for organizational success. Speed is a competitive advantage. Teams who make fast decisions, experiment often, and move to market swiftly tend to be more successful( Iterative Teams). However, there’s a big difference between having a sense of urgency and a workplace culture in which everything is always urgent.

From personal experiences, I have been guilty of creating unnecessary urgencies myself, and perhaps I have given some reason to convince myself on why I did it. Not all urgency is bad, however – the problem is when everything feels urgent.