In business, “move fast” has become a mantra. But somewhere along the way, it also became misunderstood. Too many teams confuse urgency with fire drills — mistaking speed for impact, and leaving behind a trail of exhaustion rather than progress.
True urgency isn’t about racing through tasks or demanding longer hours. It’s about clarity. It’s about the discipline to identify what actually matters, cut the noise, and move on those things decisively. When urgency becomes part of a team’s DNA, it creates momentum, the kind that energizes rather than drains.
The opposite is also true. When urgency is absent, organizations slip into cycles of over analysis, hesitation, and endless meetings. Opportunities vanish, competitors catch up, and teams feel stuck. But when urgency is misapplied, when it’s treated as speed for speed’s sake, burnout takes hold. Neither extreme creates sustainable performance.
The real challenge is balance: how do we embed urgency as the default mindset while protecting energy for the long game?
- Ruthless Prioritization – Urgency means knowing which two things will move the needle and letting go of the rest. A long to do list is not a strategy.
- Decisive Action – It’s better to make a decision at 80% clarity and adapt than to wait for 100% certainty that never arrives.
- Collective Pace – Urgency isn’t an individual sport. Teams thrive when urgency is modeled from the top and cascaded across the organization.
- Excellence Over Exhaustion – Urgency should fuel better execution, not sloppy work. Acting fast must always pair with acting well.
Urgency done right creates trust with customers, with teams, and with the market. It sends the signal: we are here, we are ready, and we know what matters most.
So let’s retire the myth that speed alone equals progress. Urgency is not about doing more, faster. It’s about doing the right things, faster. And that’s how you move an organization forward without breaking the very people you rely on to build it.
