Regular readers are aware that occasionally I report on interesting discussions I have with my U of A colleagues. Today’s topic arises from one of those discussions.

Whatever the oranization, regardless of type (e.g.,  a corporate, government, education  or charity , etc) the members behavior is shaped by the culture.

The culture is shaped by the leadership, although this is significantly influenced by those within the organization and to a lesser extent external factors can contribute to the culture (e.g., regulatory requirements, society’s interest as a whole and so on)

Sense of Urgency

For the context of our discussion the phrase sense of urgency simply refers to  setting of a clear understanding of what the organization is   trying to achieve and most importantly, supporting a culture where pursuing this achievement and attaining it in the shortest possible time is paramount.

In short, persuing the goal with urgency.  The organizations sense of urgency is primarily set by the leadership.  At the very least leadership sets the baseline.

So what?

There are plenty of metrics arising from studies of sucessful organizations ( based on performance to their goals) demonstrating the significant contribution of a sense of urgency.

The stronger the sense of urgency the better the customer service, qaulity of product and overall cost effectiveness.  The truth of this is intuitive to a large degree but the literature and studies on the topic continually demostrate this to be true.

So get to it, there is no better time than now.