More Strategic Urgency: Top 3 Ways to Increase the Stakes

Do You Need to Create More Strategic Urgency?
Our research on high-performing organizations consistently identifies complacency as one of the top five early warning signs of strategy execution failure. Ironically, the most vulnerable moment for an organization is often when it is at the peak of its success. If your goal is to push performance to the next level, deliberately cultivating strategic urgency can be the catalyst that prevents stagnation and accelerates results.

Why Strategic Urgency Matters
In most industries, leaders cannot afford to be reactive — or miss critical windows of opportunity. Strategic urgency, when authentic and thoughtfully applied, signals the importance of change and mobilizes the organization around the priorities that matter most. Our change management training research shows that effective change initiatives require roughly two-thirds of employees to perceive both the importance and urgency of the shift for meaningful adoption. Without this sense of shared urgency, even the most well-designed strategies can stall.

Where Strategic Urgency Starts
True strategic urgency begins at the top during strategy retreat facilitation. While broad employee strategic buy-in is critical, leadership commitment must be absolute — 100% aligned and unwavering. Executives set the tone, and their consistent reinforcement of the strategic direction is what keeps teams focused on moving toward the “new way.” Without full leadership team alignment, efforts to create urgency risk:

• Inconsistency.
• Confusion.
• Cynicism.

3 Research-Backed Ways to Create More Strategic Urgency

Breaking through workplace complacency requires an active and honest dialogue across the organization until people understand and believe in the desired strategic direction enough to commit to trying to make them happen.

1. Challenge Your Business Model
   Bring your leadership team together to rigorously examine strategic scenarios that may seem unlikely but could dramatically impact your strategy. Take a systematic “what if … then …” approach to test assumptions and reveal vulnerabilities.
   
   Focus on areas that define and differentiate your business: target clients, value proposition, competitive advantages, growth rate, leadership effectiveness, talent strategies, cultural norms, market dynamics, and the conviction behind your strategic choices. If leaders struggle to navigate complex trade-offs, consider investing in advanced decision-making training to elevate capability and confidence.
2. Check in with Dissatisfied Customers
   In virtually every industry, organizations are in the business of customer experience. One of the most effective ways to spark strategic urgency is to confront the reality of unhappy or lost customers. While satisfied customers highlight strengths, dissatisfied clients often expose flawed assumptions, operational blind spots, or early signals of market trouble.
   
   Your customers are the truest measure of whether your strategic brand promise is being delivered. Leverage candid feedback from lost and dissatisfied clients to create urgency for action — turning discomfort into insight and momentum.
3. Scan Outliers
   Strategic disruptions often emerge from unexpected corners. Consider how companies like:
   
   — LinkedIn reshaped learning and recruiting.
   — Tesla disrupted energy storage.
   — Google redefined mobile technology.
   — Netflix transformed media consumption.
   — Uber expanded from ride-sharing into food delivery.
   — BetterUp innovated in coaching through technology.
   
   These examples underscore a critical lesson: your next biggest threat may not come from direct competitors but from outliers in adjacent or connected industries. Even Amazon’s relentless expansion demonstrates how a single visionary company can challenge multiple sectors simultaneously.
   
   Identify potential disruptors — near or distant — and use their trajectory to sharpen your strategic urgency. Mobilizing your organization around credible, high-stakes threats helps align focus, accelerate decision-making, and energize teams to act before disruption arrives at your doorstep.

The Bottom Line
More strategic urgency is not about panic or superficial energy; it’s about focus, alignment, and momentum. Organizations that master the art of genuine urgency at the leadership level — while ensuring employees understand both why and how change matters — position themselves to seize opportunities, outpace competitors, and achieve breakthrough performance.

To learn more about creating more strategic urgency, download How Strategic Clarity Distinguishes High Performing Leaders

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.