The Urgency Effect

Sunday 20 November 2011

As a manager I am fascinated by the concept of urgency. I am very

good at creating it – but also fascinated by other people that live life

from one crisis to the next.

Effect has cause and supply creates its own demand. So when we see

urgency we have too look at cause and supply / demand dynamic. I have

worked in many organizations in which root cause mechanisms have been

used to establish corrective action plans for defects (and some even for

non defect oriented processes).

I have nowhere however seen a formal type of transactional analysis

between suppliers and consumers of urgency to see which creates which.

The three or four times I have done this analysis in organizations the

most profound insights were gained as the us vs. them phenomena was

always driven by a financial incentive for the one to make the other

panic. This panic / reaction mechanism is used to manage the

inter-organizational boundaries and destroys value and profit. Strangely

by removing the financial incentive, panic disappeared and one could

start working on cohesion between the formerly hostile parties.

I read a study in which it outlined that when organizations had

highly structured performance management systems – that profit declined

and where organizations focused on long term planning boundaries –

profit increased. I think this urgency effect has a role to play in the

this interaction.

Apart from re-emphasizing that one bottom line is good for business –

the lesson here is that artificial barriers between units and divisions

based around incentives and performance measures are just plain bad

ideas. It will only lead to an unsustainable urgency that is only one

way to do business.

It is a rule in physics that if a system is not excited it will tend

to disappear over time. One can argue that the calm and focused way to

do business will never be profitable. I would argue to say that not all

systems are violent and constantly at war with themselves. We cannot

rebuild the road every-time we cross the bridge. Sure the first time is

hard. Thereafter, rather focus on small improvements and maintenance of

the system while being a superhighway.

I do a lot of gardening, and it is interesting to see that if you

plant a seed, it grows, given enough light, water and nutrients. If you

want it to grow faster, it requires more water, more nutrients, clearing

of weeds and for the rest generally staying out of the way of the plant

that is growing. This same creative power exists in all of us – so why

do we kill it with urgency.