6. Creating a Sense of Urgency

If a company operates successfully in the market, it builds up a pool of processes, structures, and regulations over the years. These are usually very useful and helpful to the organization at the time of their introduction (cf. e.g. Kotter 2012, p. 149). However, often the utility diminishes with time because the world—especially in today’s globalized and fast-paced environment—changes, but the processes remain rigid. If you ask your employees about the perceived benefits of the existing processes, structures, and rules, you will probably find that they are being experienced as a burden rather than an aid. You can prove this—especially for non-production processes—easily with value stream analyses. On the other hand, however, these structures provide footing and safety. Every employee knows exactly where her place is in the overall structure, her power and influence. If you want to implement far-reaching changes, you directly attack people’s safety needs. Maslow clearly demonstrated in his “hierarchy of needs” that “safety” is almost as important for every individual as “physiological needs” and thus a foundational need far from the higher levels of “esteem” and “self-actualization”. This literally means you are shaking your employees at their very foundation. Accordingly, you will encounter resistance, which can stop your change process, even before you have really started. Therefore, you must transport a sense of urgency that is recognized by everybody. It must illustrate that your change endeavor is not only justified but also necessary for survival. Brief: Make the crisis transparent, on which your desire for change is based on (cf. Kotter 2012, pp. 46). You would not undertake a major change effort, if you did not have good reasons. Share them. With smaller changes, it may be that it is not about survival—they are nevertheless usually about long-term profitability and thus competitiveness. There is a reason that you want to change something. Make this reason visible to everyone.