Hijacked by the urgent

Over the last couple of days two clients have expressed concerns about getting hijacked by the urgent. In other words, they know their mandate includes forward thinking long term strategy and planning for the future. But they come into work, expecting normal and end up with urgent. Urgent is the client who needs a call right away, the employee you didn’t show for work and has a presentation scheduled and the steam rolling effect of details that need to be checked, verified and approved.

Are you operating under a culture of urgent? There is nothing more thrill inducing than managing a panic crisis. The adrenalin junkies out there know what I am talking about. A former boss prided herself on being able to create “heart attacks” for the young staff. From her perspective it was good to get the blood flowing around the office. Is it any wonder that retention was a challenge in that environment?

From the perspective of looking at being hijacked by the urgent, Preventive Follow Thru’s while highly adaptive seek out the variety that managing from one urgent request to another gives them. They are the ones who are at the ready to jump in and lend a hand - especially if it takes them away from a “boring” task. For the Initiating Follow Thru’s this just totally messes up their organized day. Follow thru energy for these folks involves getting organized, starting a project, working on it and then finishing it.

The task of looking forward is hard to measure if you are hijacked by the urgent. “I’m sorry I can’t solve this crisis, I have a meeting scheduled with a thought leader.” The solution is three fold: reward for ideas, reward for innovation and make it easy for people to talk about innovation. The difference between ideas and innovation is the difference between a suggestion box and a new feature, service or product. An idea is a light bulb going on while innovation involves action. Both should be rewarded. Some people will be better at coming up with ideas and others will succeed in taking those ideas and creating innovative solutions. A room full of innovators can come up with lots of brain storming ideas. However without other instincts being involved action may not occur.

Organizations are now talking about innovation. Speaking to many clients and individuals over the past 20 years, creating a culture of innovation is fundamental to promoting an innovation dialogue. It starts at the front door. Is the reading material in the reception areas challenging, interesting, unique, and capable of starting a dialogue with your customers? Is team building and professional development designed around learning and innovation? Does a Balanced Score card include innovation and ideas?

Is there an opportunity to create a mini TED (the innovation series) for your industry? Maybe it’s a lunch and learn opportunity or breakfast with a thought leader or maybe stocking the cafeteria with new books, art work and even innovative music. Have you talked to the university about coming out and presenting their ideas of what’s new and innovative?

The burning platform is not about what is happening now. Being hijacked by the urgent takes on a whole new meaning when three years from today we look back and say……