Change Management:

Sense of Urgency
Faisal Durrani
Change and Islam

The life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) – a true

example of change.
Man’s history has never witnessed such a
complete change of a society or a place and,
that too, all these unbelievable wonders
transpired within a short span of just 23
years.
From paganism and idolatry to submission to
one true God, from tribal quarrels and wars to
national solidarity and cohesion, from
drunkenness and anarchy to disciplined living,
from utter bankruptcy to the highest
standards of moral excellence, from absolute
backwardness and ignorance to the epitome
of knowledge, science and civilization.
He preached a religion, founded a state, built
a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated
numerous social and political reforms, and
changed human thought and behavior for all
times to come.
Islam talks about change at three different
levels:
 Individual
 Social
 Political
Individually, Islam talks about changing
oneself, to shun bad habits and imbibe good
habits and character.

“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a

people until they (first) change what is in
themselves.”
(Surat Ar-Ra'd, verse 11)
At the social level, Islam talks about creating a
society where everyone is given justice and which
eliminates all kinds of injustice prevailing in
society.

“(This is) a Book which We have revealed to you, (O

Muhammad), that you might bring mankind out of
darknesses into the light by permission of their Lord – to
the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy.”
(Surat Ibrahim , verse 1)
At the political level, Islam talks about replacing
man-made laws with the laws given by Allah
(swt).

“To establish the religion and not be divided therein”

(Surat Ash-Shuraa , verse 13)

“to make it prevail over all other religions”

(Surat Al-Fath, verse 28)
Whenever change is implemented, it should
be implemented in stages and not all of a
sudden. In order to bring in change, the
Qur’an has adopted a natural process. Allah
(swt) says in the Qur’an,
“We have revealed this Qur’an little by little so that
you may recite it to people at intervals, and We
have revealed it gradually.”
(Surah Al-Isra, verse 106)
 There are many theories about how to "do" change.
 Many originate with leadership and change
management guru, John Kotter.
 A professor at Harvard Business School and world-
renowned change expert, Kotter introduced his
eight-step change process in his 1995 book,
"Leading Change."
The first step of the Change Management
Process [CMP] is to establish a sense of
urgency.
 For change to happen, it helps if the whole
company really wants it.
 Develop a sense of urgency around the need
for change.
 This may help you spark the initial
motivation to get things moving.
So, what is a sense of urgency?

Two explanations of the word urgency are useful for

understanding what leaders do as agents of change:
–First, leaders take actions that capture the
attention of critical organizational stakeholders.
–Second, leaders explain the importance of making
speedy changes to the existing condition.
When leaders create a sense of urgency, they
alert the organization that change must occur
and the leaders also begin preparing the
organization for the change process.
 A sense of urgency is the action required to
present the need for change.
 Proposed change can be one of the harder
changes.
 By nature, people do not like change.
Especially change that takes them out of
their comfort zones or disrupts habit.
A sense of urgency is simply identifying that
the current system, product, service, or
whatever it is that needs to change is no
longer the best option.
 Change can cause a perception of a threat that
what people have done or built is a not a good
way to create buy-in for the new change, but
rather resistance.
 So, urgency must be balanced with
identification, acknowledgement, and a
particular action.
 The proposed change must be communicated in
such a way that it exhibits the urgency of
implementation for the sooner rather than
later.
Reasons for urgency
 The perception of urgent change leads the way
of establishing the vision for change.
 If there is no urgency to change, there will be
complacency toward any proposed change.
 Complacency is simply a state in which there is
not enough pain or desire for greater success.
 As such, people remain doing what they do
without the desire to change.
 Complacency "is a state of self-satisfaction
especially when unaccompanied by the
unawareness of dangers or deficiencies."

*Complacency is a prime example, why change typically doesn't

work.*
 When there is no case to justify that by not
changing or remaining the same that a greater
amount of harm would occur, change will not
happen.
 Urgency helps to establish the justification and
need to act.
 Establishing urgency has to happen to illustrate
occurs by doing nothing or doing something.
 The gap between the two in an organization
typically showcase the urgency factor.
How to Create a Sense of Urgency
 Showing the seriousness of leadership commitment
to the coming change by eliminating obvious waste;
 Sharing bad news with the organization;
 Requiring managers and employees to talk regularly
to unhappy suppliers, customers, and other
stakeholders to understand their concerns directly;
 Sharing data throughout the organization that
supports the claim that change is necessary; and
 Ensuring organizational decisions and management
actions are in agreement with change
communications (walk the talk).
 To lead a change effort and gain the cooperation of
necessary stakeholders, the first step leaders must
take is to create a sense of urgency.
 It requires clear and honest communications that
create a sense of urgency rather than a sense of
doom.
 By creating both a compelling picture of a desired
future and the danger of accepting the status quo,
leaders greatly improve their chances of gaining the
commitment of organizational stakeholders for a
necessary change effort.
Dr. John Kotter proposes four tactics for
establishing urgency:
 Bring the outside in
 Behave with urgency every day
 Find the opportunity in crisis
 Deal with NoNos
Bring the outside in
 A “we know best” culture reduces urgency.
 When people do not see external opportunities or
hazards, complacency grows….
 With an insufficient sense of urgency, people don’t tend
to look hard enough or can’t seem to find the time to
look hard enough.
 The management connects the internal situation with
external opportunities and challenges through
imperative data, people, sources, etc.
 Data aids in building support for the proposed change
and also identifies the risk of not doing something.
Behave with urgency every day
 “Increasingly changing environments create
a need for alertness and agility, which
demands a sense of urgency that must be
modeled by the boss all the time.”
 Doing so aids in creating and maintaining a
proactive, flexible, and solutions driven
organization.
Find the opportunity in crisis

 A properly leveraged crisis can be a valuable

tool to break through complacency.
 When emergency arises, management can
use that opportunity to learn, act, and grow.
Deal with No Nos
 Those people who are “always ready with
ten reasons why the current situation is fine,
why the problems and challenges others see
don’t exist, or why you need more data
before acting.”
 This situation refers to enforcing the
requirements of change and holding people
accountable.
Conclusion
 Establishing a sense of urgency is the first step of
the change management process (CPM).
 Urgency creates the picture behind the need for the
change.
 Urgency moves behavior from complacency to
action.
 Think about how you can establish a sense of
urgency within your firm, clients and vendors.
 Urgency also builds the first step of the change
management process that leads to the second: build
a guiding coalition.
 When creating a sense of urgency, leaders
explain why keeping the status quo is
dangerous and why making change provides a
more desirable future for the organization.