Tyrannical urgency

The grip of getting things done, fast and with efficiency is a strong cultural norm in our world of work. It describes a world of performance, ambition, and prestige.

The performativity of our professionalism is bound to our sense of self, competency, and output. We strive to be someone who’s reliable and worthy of providing advice, direction, or care.

The idea of ‘urgency’, outside of legit emergencies, can act like the hungry Mafia Boss who demands all of your attention- leaving little room for intuition and deeper work.

And you may be familiar with this tension. A longing to be more creative yet pulled into urgent task lists. You read up on how to divvy urgent/important – and while helpful, it leaves you relentlessly loyal to something outside yourself.

And of course you want to demonstrate your ability to say yes, help out, and provide whatever is asked of you: information, analysis, contacts, details, decisions. You’re getting paid well to do so. But this pull to urgently attend leaves you uninspired and exhausted.

 

How does urgent feel inside you?

 

Go in. Go on. Follow the contours of urgency within you.

For me, it grips. Hard. I get a sense of ‘alarm bells’ in my mind. “Do this thing NOW. Do it NOW….or else….” Tag lines and key messages hurling me toward a panicky feeling in my chest, that tell me to redirect all my energy to it (that thing, that urgent thing!).

Give urgency your attention. Get curious about how it moves you…how it asks you to respond and when.

Urgency raises our heart rates. It sets us on high alert and tells our longing to jump overboard, lest it get in the way of looking ‘on top of things’.

So looking in, for you…. What is urgency on behalf of? How is it attempting to keep you safe (read: connected, loved, valued, accepted)?

For some of us, ‘urgency’ becomes a state to which we energetically and socially become accustomed. Or a state to which our productivity is compared. 

 

The cost to your leadership

 

The tyranny of urgency demands everything of you.  Its impulse can be a gateway to professional or personal acceptance.

In exchange for this acceptance, it asks you to lay down a softer, wilder state- the one that’s open to dropping in and down into the messy, creative space of innovation and meaningful relationship.

Too easily, our leadership can be driven by a sense of urgency. When this happens, we tend to emphasize execution and time management. We also privilege outputs over process. And our rich human organizations become guided by a value system of achievement and moving forward at any cost.

So how do we interrupt this grip urgency has on us and our culture of work?

Once we become familiar with how ‘urgency’ moves and lives within our bodies, we can move further out and ask:

How do I demand others to produce or deliver?

How does our organization co-construct an air of urgency, through the way we plan and create deadlines?  

What is this urgency on behalf of?

How is it impacting the quality of our decision-making?Relationships?

 

Reduce the urgent and cultivate spaciousness

 

If we find ourselves attuned to this sense of urgency (and perhaps scarcity) in our bodies, and then more broadly within our teams- how can we create more space for what really matters?

To cultivate more spaciousness at work (and reduce the urgency), there are a number of capacities to strengthen- from saying no, setting boundaries, and determining what’s important (and doing that first).

And you can also get a bit micro.

You can consciously begin and complete tasks (or blocks of work) that bring your full attention, intention, and presence. Whether it’s large or small, a briefing or a high profile presentation, you’re invited to bring your full and complete attention.

Beginnings and endings matter. Becoming conscious of them- supports a deeper grounding to how you enter/leave short and longer periods of generative work.

It’s doing deeper work from the core of who you are. Using a metaphor, shift from focusing on the sword (doing battle with all the distractions and urgent fires) to the source of the sword’s energy. That’s you and your deep imagination, focus, and attention.

Entering a task with intention and full presence will support deeper creative work- and then staying in (despite the tugs of your 14 tabs that are open on your browser). Then, leaving a task with a mindful moment of ‘thanks’ for the work committed will support a conscious shift from urgent to creative.

 

Practice for You: Device Cleanse

 

So if you’re wondering, ‘how do I manage all the urgency’ and not burn out- here is a practice for you. This is one of the most efficient ways to expand a sense of time and slow things down, when urgency is afoot.

I. When at home, on breaks throughout the day- turn off your device. Entirely. Beyond silent mode. It’s off, not functioning, so it’s not even tempting to turn on.

Try these (Suggestions to scale):

If this totally freaks you out: During all mealtimes

If you’re open, but kind of scared: All mealtimes and after 8:30pm

You’re all in (with a touch of apprehension): All mealtimes, after dinner, and one full week-end day.

II. At work turn off the internet/social media and encourage your team-mates to do the same. Begin with 1 hour/day, experiment and then share how you collectively respond to this practice. How does it impact your relationship to time ? Creativity? The quality of your work? Slowly increase the duration– up to 3 or more hours a day.

The more we can go on a “device cleanse”, we can begin to recollect a sense of abundance with time and space.

***

If we are truly committed to creativity and systems change, on behalf of greater equality and environmental transformation, how we become intimate with the quality of urgency within ourselves is essential. We must begin there- going in and down- before we can sustainably foster a quality of spaciousness and creativity.

 

Xo

Jennifer