Urgency
"Urgency" is another one of those terms that get thrown around a lot, and it's often used to push people to work more, harder, or in a more haphazard way (as in: reacting to "urgent" priority changes). That's not right. "Urgency" is in itself a good concept, and should be used to keep what's really important at the forefront of people's minds, in a unanimous fashion.
Have you ever faced a situation where a piece of value was ready for release but someone had a last minute concern, addressing which would not significantly improve user value but cause several days of holdup? That, right there, is the opposite of urgency. This kind of one-upmanship is ultimately detrimental to customer value. We have no right to withhold from our users any value that's ready to be shipped. Minuscule improvements can be rolled out with the next release.
A healthy sense of urgency instils a shared knowledge of what's really important.
Here's a nice piece on some ways to consciously work on urgency as a team. There's something in there for everyone.
Tags: work