Have we lost our sense of urgency?

The phrase did not originate with President Obama. John Kotter first articulated the value of having a constructive sense of urgency in his book Leading Change back in 1996. And in case business leaders and America’s leaders missed it, he underscored the message again in his latest work A Sense of Urgency in 2008.

Both books outlined the steps to leading organizational change, of which having a sense of urgency is just step one. The next steps are to establish an achievable vision and mission, construct the core coalition that agrees with and will carry out this mission, communicate the mission internally to align the organization, empower the many others who must carry out the plan, report on the short term wins that reinforce and encourage the new way of doing things – and then finally anchor this new way of doing things in the culture of the organization.

As we look at the business of bringing recovery to America, it can’t be said that President Obama missed this first step to leading change. But he sure has hit some snags leading the next steps.

It’s not enough to say, “Yes, we can,” when “we” becomes the democratic party. This is the observation all effective business leaders can recognize, an observation that can be made about too many of our politicians, democrats and republicans alike. To be clear, it is not an observation about the shift now in power from one party to another, but about wasted opportunity to bring meaningful change.

This was the greater meaning of the Paul Brown senatorial "upset" election in Massachusetts. And this is the greater meaning of Evan Bayh’s resignation as senator in Indiana. While the news media reported on how the democrats received another major blow, and while democrats are now rethinking their exposure, and while republicans are jockeying to take advantage, they all overlook the simple message Evan Bayh has tried to make…

"There is too much partisanship and not enough progress – too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done.”