You know your organization needs to change. You may even know what the change needs to be : a new strategy, a new IT system, an acquisition or reorganization. But somehow, change comes too slowly, or it feels like you're pushing a boulder up ahill, or the implementation of that great new idea has stalled - again.

What's missing? As change guru John Kotter shows in this eye-opening book, what's missing, and is needed in almost all organizations today, is a real sense of urgency - a distinctive attitude and gut-level feeling that lead people to grab opportinities and avoid hazards, to make something important happen today, and constantly shed low-priority activities to move faster and smarter, now.

Kotter knows about urgency. "Raising urgency" is the first step in his enormously successful eight-step framework, first articulated in Leading Change. But as Kotter illustrates, increasing urgency is the toughest of the eight steps, and the one without which even the most brilliant, high-powered initiatives will sputter and die. More important, as we transition to a world where change is continuous - not just episodic - he shows how urgency must become a core, sustained capability.

With vivid and powerful stories, Kotter reveals a distinctive view of the kind of urgency needed in every reorganization. He also highlights the insidious nature of its nemesis - complacency - in all its guises. He explains the crucial difference between constructive, true urgency, and the frantic wheel-spinning that is so often mistaken for urgency. he provides key tactics for increasing urgency, as well as exposing and rooting out complacency, with chapters on:



* Bringing the outside in

* Behaving with urgency every day

* Finding opportunity in crises

* dealing with "NoNos" or naysayers



A Sense of Urgency is a powerful tool for anyone wanting to win in a turbulent world that will only continue to move faster.