Move

Chapter 3Timing and MomentumMaintaining a Sense of Urgency for a Long Time

The Forecast Is Hazy…

Now you are somewhere in the “Middle.” There is work getting done. But something is missing. The motivation for the new work is hard to see. The excitement from the beginning is waning as all of the present activity re-asserts itself. You are frustrated that the strategy is not moving forward in a decisive way. There are some stalls—some late or lethargic starts. You can't feel forward momentum and urgency and you are starting to worry…

What Everyone Is Thinking

“Did we start yet?” It seems like I heard some stuff about that a while ago…. I haven't really noticed a change so far. My job is the same. We still have all the same problems. Oh well, as I understand it, this was a long-term strategy, so maybe we didn't really kick it off yet. In any case, I don't need to worry about it for a while because we have a lot of time.”

Focus on Mid-Term Checkpoints

There is a strong organizational tendency for people to think that they don't have to worry about anything in month 1 of an 18-month initiative.

When people focus only on the long-term end goal, then the first step in their long-term journey is a delay. It's important to create a framing of the initiative in a way that avoids this early sense of complacency.

In the last chapter we talked about the importance of defining concrete outcomes. The next tool to keep everyone on track through the Middle is timing. Once you have defined ...