Urgent! – Dermot Crowley
An important swift action? Just Do It!
Urgency As A Tool For Team’s Productivity
Right amount of urgency is needed in order to get things done quickly or to drive progress. But too much urgency can lead to the destruction of team’s morale and productivity and Too little can induce lethargy or stagnation.
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There are two types of unnecessary urgency
- Fake urgency – self-inflicted or external influencer
- Avoidable urgency – something could’ve been avoided and wasn’t – created based on procastination or poor time management
Both can kill a planned workday. Save urgency for important matters that are critical and unavoidable
Cultivate Proactive Mindset
- Always act in ways that maximize benefit – and minimize harm
- Create a Plan of action
- Working in a way that makes team members’ lives easier
- Measure twice and cut once – strive to do things right the first time
- Prioritize by importance
- Minimize procrastination
- Plan multiple steps ahead
Controlling Your Urgency
Cultivating a proactive mindset can help control the kinds of urgency you accept and propagate. use urgency with care, and avoid creating unnecessary urgency for others
Implement a proactive system to manage your work effectively and boost productivity. when requesting work, state the deadline, and make sure your team does the same. Stay organized and manage activity by time
Urgency Can Be Adjusted
Manage urgency by balancing the following, tune each dial based on the situations
- Time
- Scope
- Quality
- Bring in more resources
- Use budget to outsource things
- Risk – reduce risk by cutting
Respond Or React
For external urgency, try to be responsive and not reactive.
When there is urgency,
- Pause your work
- Acknowledge the task
- Evaluate
- Prioritize & decide on the course of action
- Ask why the issue’s urgent – or whether it’s really urgent at all. If you do this politely and firmly, people will see that you’re focused on what’s important.
Driving An Internal Urgency
To mobilize the team into action, you’ll need to communicate deliberately and clearly the task at hand.
That starts with demonstrating that you care about the task and committing fully when it’s truly urgent.
Driving An Internal Urgency: Some key points
- Set accountable deadlines
- Cultivate a culture of accountability
- Allow team to ask “why of the task” question
