A Sense of Urgency

Author and international business consultant Kotter (Leading Change, Our Iceberg is Melting) returns with an engaging look at companies that need to overcome a lack of urgency-or a surfeit of complacency-with a proactive agenda. Kotter dissects well his seemingly simple premise, using his professional experiences to examine the inner workings of real companies. Kotter defines his terms with clear language and bullet lists, convincingly asserting that urgency ""is not driven by a belief that... everything is a mess but, instead, that the world contains great opportunities and great hazards""; it is, in fact, ""a compulsive determination to move, and win, now."" Among suggested tactics: bring the outside world into overly insular work teams; make your deeds consistent with your words; view crises as potential opportunities; and disseminate data that ""feels interesting, surprising, or dramatic,"" as opposed to ""information so antiseptic that it flows in and out of short-term memory with great speed."" Great examples illustrate real-life frustrations and successes, and a special section on dealing with the nay-sayers is full of practical ploys to overcome dissent and kill complacency.