John Kotter & Mike Evans - Creating True Urgency, Focus and Engagement

Human beings are ‘wired’ to cling to what is familiar and comfortable. Yet change is inherently about the unknown and requires shifts in behaviors (and often habit). At the same time, large-scale change sends about 80% of your employees into some degree of discomfort, unease, anxiety, stress, fear, pain or denial. This poses a significant challenge for leaders. A heightened sense of urgency among a critical mass of employees around a common opportunity or objective is vital prior to any attempt to implement change. When change is ‘pushed’ out on employees, most often they will push back. That is human nature. When employees do not see the reason or need for change, or understand the compelling business case, they often fear or resent change. Even worse, they may deliberately sabotage or derail change efforts. Often senior leaders identify a new opportunity, goal or strategy that will propel the organization to the next level a greatness. As leaders, this opportunity and the compelling business case as to why becomes crystal clear. Once this direction or strategy is identified, in most cases mid level managers and supervisors are tasked with making the change a reality. These managers begin to implement tactics and strategies to advance progress toward the desired outcomes. What they typically discover is push back, cynicism, apathy and lack of engagement from those they lead. In order to break through this resistance consider this one simple proven notion. Opportunity before strategy. By first creating urgency and alignment around the opportunity or possibilities, leaders will find they are able to connect to not only the head (logic) of those they lead, but more importantly to the heart (passion). Tactics and strategies will never engage the heart. Lack of creating urgency is another major de-railers of change efforts. It is vital that leaders gain buy-in and engagement. That is only achieved by engaging the heart. This results in voluntary contributions of discretionary performance. Employees will tap into their full potential and go above and beyond when they are fully engaged. When we speak of creating urgency among a critical mass, we are not suggesting to spending an inordinate amount of time gaining consensus amongst everyone. Leaders must leverage those that ‘see what we see’ as leaders (the opportunity and the possibilities) to encourage others to join us. In other words, develop and foster a ‘want-to’ culture versus a ‘have-to’ culture.