Creating a Sense of Urgency – And What Often Gets Overlooked
Originally posted: April 30, 2014 | Revised Edition
One of the most common reasons clients reach out to me is to help instill a greater sense of urgency in their teams. Usually, this happens after leaders have applied increasing pressure—yet the staff continues to operate as though deadlines are optional and time is unlimited.
Clients often complain that employees are “dragging their feet” or, as my late father used to put it, have “lead in their ass.” They describe staff as disconnected from business realities, “living in la-la land.” While this frustration may be valid, the real root of a perceived lack of urgency is often misunderstood.
Let’s look at two examples:
Example 1: Claude’s Development Team
Claude’s manager insisted that Claude and his team of software developers lacked urgency. I flew to France to meet them.
What I found was a team facing completely unrealistic deadlines. The developers knew that even if they worked around the clock from day one, they still wouldn’t hit the delivery date. Their “lack of urgency” wasn’t laziness—it was strategic. They chose to ramp up closer to the (inevitably extended) deadline rather than burn out early. Claude, unwilling to confront upper management or renegotiate a realistic timeline, avoided the issue.
Lesson 1: When you hear “lack of urgency,” first examine whether the deadlines themselves are credible.
Example 2: Dr. Hana’s Research Lab
Dr. Hana leads a team of 14 life scientists working on a long-term asthma treatment—a drug that won’t be market-ready for at least a decade.
Their pace is deliberate, even leisurely. Why? Because with each sign of progress, commercial pressure mounts. Increased visibility could mean acquisition, a change in leadership, and loss of their research-focused culture. So they deliberately slow progress to protect their environment.
Lesson 2: When urgency is lacking, ask yourself: What do employees believe will happen if they act urgently? What are they trying to avoid?
Cultural Considerations
Urgency isn’t universal—it’s cultural. In some places, not replying within an hour is unacceptable; in others, a detailed response within a few days is entirely appropriate.
For example, Israelis and many Asians may respond quickly due to a high value placed on relationships. In contrast, Americans stick to structured plans, while Germans may delay action in pursuit of thorough data and risk mitigation.
Lesson 3: Understand that urgency means different things across cultures—and so does responsiveness.
Key Takeaway
When people don’t display urgency, it’s rarely about laziness or incompetence. More often, it’s a reflection of their motivations, constraints, or cultural context. Rather than pressuring people to “act faster,” invest time in understanding what drives their current behavior—and give them a reason to change.
This is a case for isolating the need from the client request and having a one-to-one conversation.
and I had several. The Chinese call this “playing piano to a cow”. He did not get it…..he was addicted to the phrase “lacking a sense of urgency” and “a sense of ownership”
When urgency cannot be explained with fact-based or high-probability based negative consequences of not meeting a given deadline, it generates long-term desensitization to real ones.
Lévis
Dump the CRM system! & find a way to demonstrate the adage that “what gets measured is what gets done.”
Clearly, despite the CEO’s complaints, he’s more interested in measuring the wrong things than in providing customer service. Or at the very least, he doesn’t understand that what he’s measuring with the CRM system is contrary to his expressed objectives.
Illuminating case. Thank you.
Instilling a “sense of urgency?” Make it fair! Most people misunderstand that a sense of urgency is uniquely tied to time. Some time ago, it was shared with me (and I quickly adopted and shared) that a sense of urgency should be equated with “something needs to change.” OK, this may be hard for most people to embrace because if there is one thing people hate more than being rushed it is C-H-A-N-G-E (don’t get me started on that).
As a manager, I got more buy-in when I broadened the scope.
One example that comes to mind: We were under pressure to increase production to meet increased demand. The first thing corporate offices did was demand a greater “sense of urgency.” Our shop floor people heard “work harder” to which the shop floor responded with “give us more resources.” I stepped in and reminded them that “something had to change.” We looked at the processes and realized that if engineering (at HQ) implemented some improvements (changes) to machinery and processes then we could reach the new output targets with no increased effort or “working harder” from associates.
A sense of urgency has to be well defined and NOT used as a three-word-whip.
Love the expression 3 word whip! Thanks Tony.