7 Ways to Recognize Those Who Really Get It

1) A Winning Team: People with a strong sense of urgency quickly identify critical issues and form strong teams that are committed to ambitious change even when the members of the team are already working hard.
2) Vision and Strategies: Strong and committed teams organize the effort to find smart strategies and envision long-term outcomes when dealing with essential issues, even when the best strategies are hard to pin down.
3) Communication: High-urgency teams feel a need to persistently communicate their vision and strategies to the appropriate people to get them on board and generate still more urgency.
4) Empowerment: Those with a strong sense of urgency empower others who are dedicated to making a vision a reality by removing obstructions in their path.
5) Short-Term Wins: High-urgency teams celebrate short-term victories and make them visible to the entire organization.
6) Never Give Up: After a minor or great success, teams with a true sense of urgency never let their members slip back to complacent inertia. Instead, they expand the effort and strive for improvement.
7) Making It Stick: Teams with a true sense of urgency feel duty-bound to find ways to make sure any change sticks by incorporating that change into the organization's structure, systems, and - most importantly - culture.
Here is the truly amazing thing: Working with a sense of urgency actually requires less energy than complacency. And the rewards are ten-fold.