A Sense of Urgency

True Urgency

If you’ve ever ended a week exhausted and still felt behind, you already know the difference between motion and progress. Most teams are drowning in activity—meetings, emails, dashboards, and “urgent” requests that light up phones but don’t move the needle. That’s not urgency. That’s noise.

True urgency is different. It’s a clear-eyed, steady push to act on what matters now—without drama and without delay. It feels calm and focused. People know the few priorities that count, they move quickly, and they finish what they start. You see decisions made at the right level. You see customer problems solved while they still matter. You see momentum.

This book is about building that kind of urgency on purpose—and keeping it alive. It names the two traps that quietly stall growth:

• Complacency: “We’re fine. We’ve always done it this way.” Comfortable stories that hide real risks.

• False urgency: The frantic shuffle—more meetings, more reports, more ‘ASAP’—with little real progress.

The fix isn’t another KPI or a tougher memo. The fix is a cultural reset built on four everyday moves:

1) Bring the outside in

Get your people face-to-face with reality—customers, competitors, frontline frustrations, and changing market conditions. Outside pressure sharpens focus and cuts through internal politics.

• Do this now: Start every staff meeting with a two-minute “outside flash”—one real customer win/loss, one competitor move, or one field insight.

• Why it works: The team stops solving for internal comfort and starts solving for what actually matters outside the building.

2) Behave with urgency every day

Leaders set the pace. Shorten meetings. Decide faster with the facts you have. Remove roadblocks immediately. Model “do it now” without theatrics.

• Do this now: Cap meetings at 25 minutes. End each one with three bullet decisions, owners, and deadlines—then get out of the room.

• Why it works: People take their cue from your tempo. Calm speed beats loud hurry every time.

3) Find opportunity in crises

When something breaks—a lost bid, a failed inspection, a supply delay—use it. A real problem creates real attention. Channel it into a fix that makes you stronger.

• Do this now: Ask, “What can we change in 48 hours that prevents this next time?” Implement one permanent fix before the week ends.

• Why it works: You turn pain into practice. The team learns to expect action, not post-mortems.

4) Deal with the NoNos

Every shop has folks who quietly slow-walk change or drip doubt. Respect people; confront the behavior. Redirect energy or move them out of the way.

• Do this now: When you hear “That won’t work,” answer with, “What would make it work?” Require one constructive alternative.

• Why it works: You protect momentum while giving skeptics a path to contribute.

How it feels when urgency is real

• Fewer priorities, done faster and better

• Decisions happen sooner and closer to the work

• Customer issues get solved before they become stories

• Meetings shrink; follow-through grows

• Wins stack, morale rises, turnover drops

How it looks when urgency is fake

• Constant “ASAP” with no clear outcome

• Long meetings that create new meetings

• Dashboards multiply while quality slips

• Good people burn out; average work drags on

Quick Wins You Can Use This Week

• Three priorities, not ten. Write them on a whiteboard everyone sees. Everything else waits.

• “Who/What/When” at the end of every meeting. No notes? No action.

• 48-hour fixes. If a problem hits the customer, a fix hits the process within two days.

• Walk the floor daily. Ask, “What’s in your way today?” Then remove it—on the spot when possible.

• Weekly outside flash. One customer call, one competitor scan, one field ride-along. Share the learning.

Simple Metrics That Matter

• Decision cycle time: Days from issue raised to decision made

• Lead time to customer value: From request to resolution

• WIP count: How many “started, not finished” items are open

• Meeting load: Total hours spent in meetings per week

• Follow-through rate: % of commitments completed on time

(When urgency is real, cycle times drop, WIP shrinks, and follow-through climbs—without adding bodies.)

Real-World Snapshots

• Service company: Cut weekly ops meeting from 90 to 25 minutes; tickets closed in <24 hours jumped from 42% to 71% in four weeks.

• Contractor: Turned a failed inspection into a 48-hour checklist/QA change; re-inspection pass rate went from 78% to 94% in a month.

• Distributor: Added “outside flashes” to standups; team spotted a pricing gap and won back a key account in two weeks.

Scripts You Can Borrow

• When work is drifting: “What outcome are we driving, and by when? If it’s not one of our top three, we pause it.”

• When a meeting balloons: “We have 10 minutes left. Decide, assign, deadline—go.”

• When NoNos surface: “I hear the concern. Give me one way to make it workable. If we can’t find one, we’ll try the simplest version for two weeks and measure.”

A final word

Urgency isn’t running hot; it’s running clear. It’s fewer, better fights—and faster finishes. Build it, protect it, and your business becomes the kind of place where people do their best work and customers feel it. If you’re tired of wheel-spinning, this is your playbook to reset the culture and start stacking real wins—this quarter, not “someday.”