Definition:
Urgency is important to a change effort, meaningful organisational change cannot occur without the cooperation of the affected stakeholders. Sense of urgency is an inner drive and desire to get on with the job quickly and get it done fast. This inner drive motivates you to get going and keep going, a feeling much like racing against yourself.
Dr. John Kotter in his book “a sense of urgency” says, sense of urgency is a powerful tool for anyone wanting to win in a turbulent world that will only continue to move faster. Knowing the rules for proper handling a crisis can offer an opportunity to increase needed urgency, an opportunity that cannot be disregarded. We need to perceive a situation or problem is important, requires delebrate action. Teams needs to develop new habits of thinking, perceiving and acting to inculcate this thought of developing sense of urgency. Act in proportion to the urgency, specify the task to reduce confusion and improve judgement, clarify the consequences, use urgency to preserve towards victory despite the pain, recognise who exhibit a sense of urgency.
Further Reading:
Book: A sense of urgency by Dr. John Potter
Book: SUCCEEDING WITH AGILE Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn