Never allow a good sense of urgency go to waste.

“In successful change efforts, the first step is making sure sufficient people act with sufficient urgency — with on-your-toes behavior that looks for opportunities and problems, that energizes colleagues, that beams a sense of “let’s go.” Without enough urgency, large-scale change can become an exercise in pushing a gigantic boulder up a very tall mountain.

Kotter, John P.; Cohen, Dan S. The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations.

Creating a sense of urgency is the first step of the Kotter change model. Essentially a sense of urgency is necessary to overcome the inertia of the status quo and allow change.

A crisis creates a sense of urgency. From a change agent’s perspective, a crisis isn’t a problem; it’s an opportunity.

Very scientific chart showing the relationship between the level of crisis and the ease of creating a sense of urgency.

“Never allow a good crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible.”

Rahm Emanuel

It’s hard creating a sense of urgency, so when one is given to you as part of a crisis, exploit it. Don’t argue about whether the crisis is overblown, use the free sense of urgency to facilitate the improvements that needed to be done anyway.