Part of the definition of a pessimist is one who sees the worst aspect of things.  Over the last 50 or so years of my life, from young adulthood to now, I have only encountered a handful of consistently pessimistic folks.

I have always been puzzled by how grounded these people are.  Intuitively, I would expect them to be persistently unhappy and depressed.  Think about the Eeyore character from the Winnie the Pooh books.

My observation of these purist pessimists is just the opposite.

Its a defense

A collegue of mine displays this constant pessimism.  Every comment is derisive and nothing is ever viewed in a positive light.  Something is wrong with everything.

It recently dawned on me this attitude is defensive.  It works as a teflon shield.  There is nothing to be invested in nor any reason to assume accountability; everything is so screwed up anyway.

While my own personal value system would make it difficult for me to adopt this approach I have come to see how  well it really works.  In fact, by questioning everything and leading the way for dissension you actually become a leader of sorts.

Not a way I personally would choose to stand out or be recognized I have come to admire the effectiveness of this approach.  I do note though it does require an organizational culture with a fairly high level of tolerance to be effective.

Which has led me to conclude one of the key reasons I don’ t run into too many folks, with this consistently pessimistic attitude,  is because most organizational environments don’t tolerate the approach and weed the individuals out.

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.