{"id":882,"date":"2012-04-04T18:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steinvox.com\/?p=882"},"modified":"2012-08-11T12:12:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T17:12:36","slug":"sense-of-urgency-think-fast-move-fast-fail-fast-learn-fast-succeed-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/sense-of-urgency-think-fast-move-fast-fail-fast-learn-fast-succeed-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense of Urgency – Think Fast, Move Fast, Fail Fast, Learn Fast, Succeed Fast."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NoSpeedLimit\"<\/a>Sense of Urgency is one consistent pervasive element in the agile concept that cuts across innovation, research, development, marketing, sales, operations, finance, human resources, and more. That element is also called\u00a0speed<\/em>. To be sure, I do not mean haste<\/em> I mean speed <\/em>that generates swift, momentum and progress toward a goal.<\/p>\n

Speed is the essence of a sense of urgency<\/em>, or that quality that makes one able to achieve so much more than others. That factor that makes one entrepreneur or company successful while another continues to founder like a ship with no rudder.<\/p>\n

Speed vs. Haste and a Sense of Urgency<\/h3>\n

I terms of business, as I see it, haste is bad. It means unnecessary quick action, thoughtless, rash or undue speed<\/span> (from dictionary.com<\/a>). You know the adage, \u201chaste makes waste<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, speed is good. Speed is about winning and achieving<\/span>. Speed is defined in terms of performing<\/span>, the full, maximum or optimum rate of motion<\/span> (also from dictionary.com<\/a>). Think of \u201ctop speed<\/em>, full speed<\/em>, get up to speed<\/em>, expedite<\/em>, promote success<\/em>,\u201d or my favorite, the absolutes comparators of \u201cthe speed of sound<\/em>, or light speed<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 this later list are terms analysts use to relate business performance of top companies.<\/p>\n

Sense of Urgency<\/h3>\n

In business, whether you are a start-up, a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, or something in between, today\u2019s demand on the enterprise forces a sense of urgency in every activity and business function<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Think Fast<\/strong> \u2013 Leaders must quickly assemble known information and communicate pervasively to begin to initiate forward movement on a path \u2013 even as additional information is discovered. This is the essence of flexibility.<\/p>\n

Move Fast<\/strong> \u2013 That initial direction and subsequent forward driving progress based on the initial thinking of what to do. It requires constant communication and includes an information, discovery and check-in loop to tune direction.<\/p>\n

Fail Fast<\/strong> \u2013 Failing is the key to learning. Leaders must build into the culture that it\u2019s ok to fail, but to do it fast, get over the failure and immediately on to the next thing. And, don\u2019t forget to communicate so everyone knows the change in direction.<\/p>\n

Learn Fast<\/strong> \u2013 The closer to the experience of failure one learns its lesson, the less analysis effort is required to regroup, change, and redirect. Communicate the lessons learned to everyone to ensure maximum institutionalized knowledge gain.<\/p>\n

Succeed Fast<\/strong> \u2013 is the culmination of the Think \u2013 Move \u2013 Fail \u2013 Learn <\/em>cycle, and is the difference between \u201cjust doing,\u201d and \u201cdoing with a sense of urgency.\u201d Communicate the successes, revel and celebrate the success in order to prepare and motivate to do it again.<\/p>\n

Build a Culture of Speed<\/h3>\n

Performance of your organization in every aspect can be improved by developing a culture around this sense of urgency cycle. The experts and academics call this a learning organization<\/span> and I have added the essence of speed to their definition. Speed maximizes your competitiveness.<\/p>\n

Take Time for Reflection<\/h3>\n

As speed becomes a part of your culture, ensure leaders take the time to reflect on what has changed, what was done, what can be improved, what barriers can be removed, and what can increase the speed tomorrow, over the speed today. You may ask, \u201cHow can I stop and take stock, if we are moving so fast.\u201d The answer is that speed in your culture should make new time available for other things.<\/p>\n

That is the beauty of a sense of urgency; it creates time for other things. Don\u2019t forget to invest in your people, your community, and other places with the new found resource.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/h3>\n

Is your organization operating with the optimal sense of urgency? Does it differentiate between speed and haste? Do leaders in your organization allow for each element in the cycle? Does every function (HR, Ops, etc.) in your company carry a sense of urgency to deliver on their part to achieve the company\u2019s goals?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Sense of Urgency is one consistent pervasive element in the agile concept that cuts across innovation, research, development, marketing, sales, operations, finance, human resources, and more. That element is also called\u00a0speed. To be sure, I do not mean haste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,11,59,50,4,7,64,8,100],"tags":[17,21,12,42,99,15,20,19,34],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-user-experience","category-decision-making","category-definitions","category-innovation","category-leadership","category-organization","category-social-responsibility","category-strategy","category-transparency","tag-agile-behavior","tag-alignment-commitment","tag-design-thinking","tag-failing-learning","tag-hope-inspiration","tag-pervasive-strategy","tag-results-outcomes","tag-revenue-pursuit","tag-vision-mission"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/NoSpeedLimit1.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25ukk-ee","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}