A Sense of Urgency Hardcover – August 5, 2008

This is a very practical guide for any employee, at any level, who feels the need to effect positive change in her/his organization. Obviously, there has to somebody at the executive level who shares those feelings with the will to make the necessary changes come to fruition. The book provides the reasons, based on John Kotter's extensive experience with companies and their leaders, on why very smart people can become complacent, slow down change or sabotage efforts to bring about necessary changes. The book also provides a list of actions one can take to counter these negative forces, while also providing guidance on being cognizant of "false urgency" where people undertake non-productive activities in the hope that their actions will be seen by others as productive. On the bad side, many of the sentences in the book are repeated so it seems a dull read to start with, but as you progress through the book, the nuggets come out towards the end.

"the number one problem they have is all about creating a sense of urgency"A Sense Of Urgency by John Kotter is, simply put, a sequel of his previous book; "Our Iceberg is Melting". "Our Iceberg is Melting" is a fictional story of emperor penguins who fight for survival during the threat of change. The eight steps to overcome and embrace change are 1.) A sense of urgency 2.) The guiding team 3.) Visions and strategies 4.) Communication 5.) Empowerment 6.) Short-term wins 7.) Never letting up 8.) Making change stick.This book is focused on the first step, a sense of urgency. As Kotter wrote "Most organizations handle step 1 poorly". Without a "true" sense of urgency, the following 7 steps to embrace change is a cumbersome task. And more importantly, because "we are moving from episodic to continuous change. With this shift, urgency will move from being an important issue every few years to being a powerful asset all the time."Contents1. It all starts with a sense of urgencyAs I mentioned earlier that a sense of urgency is vital to a process of change. John Kotter also indicated the two most hazardous enemies, complacency and false urgency.2. Complacency and false urgencyKotter digged deep into the two enemies, complacency and false urgency. He elaborated the cause of them, how do the complacent (and people with false of urgency) think? What do they feel? How do they behave? He, later, wrote on how to find complacency and false urgency. This chapter is truly alarming and you might not like it!3. Increasing true urgencyThe critical point of the chapter is that true urgency aims for the "heart". A true sense of urgency is "a set of feelings: a compulsive determination to move, and win, now"; not hundreds of PowerPoint slides with graphs, charts, and researches. He concluded the chapter with four tactics (the following four chapters).4. Tactic One: bring the outside in"Tactic One is based on the observation that organizations of any size or age tend to be too internally oriented." He suggested us seven useful ways to "bring the outside in" to create a sense of urgency in the organization.5. Tactic Two: behave with urgency everydayTo make sure any action is not just a flavour of a month, we need to behave urgently everyday. Behaving urgently does not mean panicking and Kotter tells you how. I personally like the term "urgent patience" because "behaving urgently does not mean constantly running around, screaming "Faster-faster". Urgent patience means acting each day with a sense of urgency but having a realistic view of time.6. Tactic Three: find opportunity in crisesThere are two camps of people amid crisis, one always looks for crisis avoidance, crisis management, damage control, budgets, budget reviews, and financial control system. The other looks for a burning platform; they view crises as not necessary bad. With fire spreading, they move, status quo eliminated and new beginning is possible. Which one is correct? Yes, neither. Kotter wrote on the pitfalls of the two and how to balance and how to make the most out of crises.7. Tactic Four: deal with NoNosNoNo is a character in "Our Iceberg is Melting" who always say, as the name suggests, "No no". They are resistant to change, slow down movement, and kill urgency. NoNos are not skeptics, they are worse. And Kotter wrote on how NOT to deal with them and how to deal with them effectively.8. Keeping urgency upTrue urgency leads to success with leads to complacency. This chapter tells you how to avoid this problem.9. The future: begin today...Next, I'll try to briefly rate this book on a scale of ideal business book or a book that is "easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience"Ease of Understanding: 8/10: This book is focused on a single issue which helps you understand the subject thoroughly. The drawback is that the (real or unreal) supporting stories or examples are written lightly or fiction-like with no reference or supporting data. They do not support the contents well enough.Distinction: 8/10: With hundreds (if not thousands) of books already on the topic of change, this small book gives you a more elaborated and detailed view on the sub-topic of change. There are also far too many titles about the rate of change in business but most of them focus on technological side of change. This is a book on a fast pace business environment with very little mention on the Internet and not a single word (I believe) on Google, My Space, Twitter, etc.Practicality: 7/10: Although there is no step-by-step instruction to create a true sense of urgency, the book sufficiently provides you with valuable and practical guidelines.Reliability: 5/10: There are many stories supporting the subjects but they are not truly convincing. They are (I hate to say) a bit too short and too fictional with no data or reference as I mentioned. Moreover, the one strategy (aim at the heart) and four tactics are mainly from the words and experience of the author. Simple said, the only reliable factor of the book is the author himself. I wish there were more concrete facts.Insight: 5/10: I feel that the author wanted this book to be easy to read and easy to grasp the essence of it. Kotter believes that to create a sense of urgency in an organization, we need to communicate to the heart not to the mind with too much data and analysis (two hundred slides PowerPoint presentation, for instance). However, that is suitable for communication in the business setting with very little time to spare and to comprehend the message. Intellectual readers (not me) might expect more.Reading Experience: 6/10: The two most important words in the book are "urgent" and "now". This book will put you in the state of emergency. One point of this book that made me feel uncomfortable is that it is, from my judgement, 80% pessimistic and 20% optimistic.Overall: 6.5/10: If you have read "Our Iceberg is Melting" and had a problem with the first step (like I did), you should definitely buy the book. If you have not but feel that your organisation is either stagnant and slow (complacent), or chaotic with no result (false urgency) and your organisation does not respond to change well enough, this book is a good start.

John Kotter does an excellent job expounding on the most important and critical first component of initiating change: instilling a sense of true urgency in your actions and those around you. Building on his previous books, Our Iceberg is Melting, Leading Change, and The Heart of Change, Kotter distinguishes true urgency from its insidious opposite, complacency, and its evil twin, false urgency. With a clear-eyed resolve to acknowledge and address problems, initiate actions that call to people's hearts and minds (not their minds alone), and to address NoNos and other obstacles to change (and urgency killers), you can use Kotter's strategy and 4 tactics to instill a sense of urgency in your organization. A quick read that you can apply in your daily life immediately, it's a great book for those seeking to do more.

Yet another change management book of John Kotter. This time, the book zooms in on the first step of the 8-step Kotter change model. The style is much the same as the previous books, mildly academic, some examples, not a great amount of research, yet pretty well written. This books was shorter and I felt it was less insightful than the previous ones. Perhaps worthwhile if you are a Kotter fan, but if you are looking for a general change management book then better read his earlier work.The book sort-of consists of three parts. The first chapter introduces the well-known 8-step kotter change method: 1) create a sense of urgency, 2) form a guiding team, 3) create a compelling vision, 4) communicate, 5) empower the people to change, 6) celebrate short wins, 7) don't give up, 8) make the change stick. This part summarizes the method and shares the latest insights on it from Kotter. It then expands on the first step, which is the topic of the rest of the book.The second part has one chapter for each of the 4 tactics on how to create a sense of urgency. They are 1) bring the outside in, 2) behave with urgency every day, 3) find opportunities in crisis, 4) deal with the NoNos. To me, there was very little surprising content in this, it just summarized some practices. I didn't agree with all of them, especially the attitude of simply declaring a person a NoNo is not the most constructive way of managing change.The last part is about sustaining the urgency and the next steps. It is the typical action chapter of a management book.All in all, I found the book only mildly interesting. I find Kotter's change method a bit too ordered, structured and top-down. I've not ever experienced a true organizational change to go that way. Of course, it is only a model of what Kotter has seen in organization... but still... I'm not convinced that looking at change in that way is the best way to bring change. The new things in the book weren't particularly impressive and, as mentioned, the part about dealing with NoNos was highly disappointing. Yes, there are times you need to deal with people who obstruct change, but labeling them as obstructors is the least constructive thing I can imagine. All in all, an average book.

Excelente libro!!!! Llego antes de lo esperado!!! Me encantó!!!

Good readWould be good to limit people attending accident appointments when they could be allocated spar slots

Good book

Twelve years after publishing his main book "Leading Change", in which he had identified the seven necessary steps of any successful change programme, Kotter now focuses on the step one. Why and how to create a sense of urgency? As always with Kotter, it is clear, structured, clever and full of relevant examples.

The book shows you great concepts, but it could be more direct in present some of them. The second part of the book feels repetitive.