Creating a Sense of Urgency for Your Change/Transformation
We’ve discussed:
Part 1 change leadership and change management
Part 2 the role and importance of the executive sponsor
“Creating a sense of urgency – what’s that supposed to mean?”
Let’s review.
Around 70% of change initiatives fail to achieve their strategic objectives. (HBR/McKinsey)
40% of CEOs don’t believe their companies will be economically viable in ten years, without changing their current path. (PWC).
Between 70-90% of M&As fail to achieve the rationale of their genesis. (HBR).
Those are horrifying stats.
They suggest that fully 28% of the companies surveyed are unlikely to be viable in 10 years.
28%!
Reasons are various – culture is a critical component of effective change, for example, and yet many initiatives (not least M&As), fail at this very hurdle.
Another reason (one of many) is that change initiatives can simply run out of momentum and peter out through lack of energy and structure within the process, or an ineffective executive sponsor(s).
Creating a sense of urgency provides the change or transformation program with a focus on imparting energy, enthusiasm, and timescale into the program from the outset.
And be under no illusion. Change is coming at us rapidly.
“…but are you suggesting that we proceed with undue haste…..?”
No, absolutely not.
Research has shown that many transformation initiatives that lack a sense of urgency, indicative of the mindset of those responsible for them, tend to fail.
“Urgency”, rather than being about “haste”, is that of an organisation and a team seizing the moment, embracing the positive opportunities and value that change can bring to their enterprise.
It’s about the realisation that there are real positives that surround the ever-increasing rate of change that can be of significant value to stakeholders.
The UN cited an increase in the value of disruptive technologies rising from £350Bn to over $3.2Trn between 2018 and 2025 – a 9-fold increase in just eight years.
Why wouldn’t an organisation, seeking to thrive in this environment, not have “a sense of urgency” (and maintain that) if it is serious about deriving the positives of transformation?
So, visualise what change can bring to you and your organisation.
Think about the consequences of not rising to the challenge that continuous an accelerating change presents to you.
Consider the opportunities that change, and transformation can bring to your stakeholders and the sense of excitement that can and should result.
And remember, one of the key elements (and by no means the only one) that you need to do is to create is a sense of urgency.
