SENSE OF URGENCY

Cutting Out Complacency


IIF THERE IS ONE THING John Kotter doesnt believe in, it is candy-coating what he thinks are basic truths. Weve seen off the worst of the crisis, but anyone who thinks that well crawl out of this and not see bad times again is kidding themselves, says the Harvard Business School professor. The worst thing a company can do at a time like this is dig itself into a trench or seal itself in a cave to try and protect itself, he adds. According to Kotter, smart leaders are realising that this crisis is actually a great time to grab any opportunity the environment throws up. I suspect there are companies that are in such a difficult position that all they can do is hold on and keep themselves from dying , but for the others, difficult times can be useful to drive down complacency, he says. And it is driving down this feeling of complacency that forms the basis for his latest book, A Sense of Urgency. Among the worlds foremost authorities on leadership and change, Kotter says that over the years, a question people always asked of him was: What was the one aspect of handling change that managers seemed to struggle with the most. The search for the answer set him off on a new branch of research, which is what resulted in the book. This sense of urgency tends to manifest at three levels, in how people think, feel and act. People with a true sense of urgency deeply believe that there are major opportunities and major hazards out there and have a deep determination to get out there and do something, he explains. These are people who, instead of delegating the hygiene factor items on their agendas to other people, will simply purge them. And in times of crisis, it is this behavioural trait that will keep organisations afloat and help them succeed.
A CEO, Kotter says, needs to play multiple roles when seeing his firm through a crisis of this magnitude. The first is to make sure that they dont dig themselves into trenches and instead look for opportunities so that they not only survive, but are also stronger once the economy bounces back and in a better position to go after new business.
The other important thing the leader of the company needs to do is communicate with his people and be honest about the situation the company is in. Its important to encourage people to think about the circumstances, not in a negative way, but to make them view it as a time to build strengths and capabilities, he says. Companies need to remember that this isnt the first economic downturn the world has seen. There have been many over the centuries and weve always come out of them and grown and seen better times, says Kotter.
And to be able to make the most of
any potential opportunities, it is the CEOs who need to step up and instil a sense of urgency in their organisations. There are four aspects to this, says Kotter . The first is a series of actions people can take to access information that would give a clearer picture of both the opportunities and the hazards for the organisation. This can be something as simple as surfing the web or sending people back to university to bring back information about the real world, he says. Second on the list is for the CEO to act with a sense of urgency himself. It is one of the easiest things to do, and the most important as people see this behaviour and start to emulate it. This in turn has a ripple effect throughout the organisation, says Kotter. Next in line is being on the lookout, both within the organisation and outside, for a potential crisis and finding an opportunity in it to reduce a sense of complacency. The last, and most important for a CEO, is to be alert to the NoNos , especially if they have a crucial role to play in the shortterm , say Kotter, referring to the naysayers from his previous book, Our Iceberg is Melting. These are the people who resist change and push up false urgency and anxiety driven activity . If you have these people reporting to you, you have to realise that they can be very dangerous in a fast moving world, he cautions. Of course the enthusiasm to emerge stronger out of a slowdown can also result in a lot of excitement over nothing. Kotter calls this a false sense of urgency. This is where the leader needs to run a check and see if all the meetings and increased activities are actually resulting in anything or if everyone is simply running around in circles. Finally, he says, once the urgency levels are up, it is important to get a strong team in place to drive the change and ensure that the people are empowered to take steps that would aid the change process. According to Kotter, acting with a sense of urgency is soon moving from being an episodic behaviour pattern to a generic aspect of running a business and its important for an organisation to institutionalise the process once it is running smoothly. People have to remember that things are only going to get worse from now. With the amount of volatility out there and with the rate of change going up, it is akin to driving a car fast on curvy roadsthe chances of accidents are just going to go up, and that is what we are being forced to do today, says Kotter. priyanka.sangani@timesgroup .com