Prof.Dr.

Aung Tun Thet

5/17/2020

Based on “How to Act Quickly Without Sacrificing Critical

Thinking” by Jesse Sostrin, HBRApril 27, 2017
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• Urgency counterproductive and costly
• Too quick to react
• End up with short-sighted decisions or
superficial solutions
• Neglecting underlying causes and create
collateral damage

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• Too deliberative and slow to respond
• Caught flat-footed
• Missing opportunity
• Emergent challenge consume you

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REFLECTIVE URGENCY

• Balance two extremes

• Conscious rapid reflection to priorities
• Align best thinking with swiftest course of action
• 3 strategies

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1. DIAGNOSE URGENCY TRAP

• Identify what’s limiting quality thinking time

• Habitual, unconscious, and counterproductive ways
• Push harder to get ahead
• Pressure of too many demands

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COMMON URGENCY TRAPS

• Ending one meeting prematurely

• Rush to next one with more unfinished business
• Multitasking during work that require complete
presence and full attention
• Saying yes to projects that dilute contribution and
burn energy
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COMMON URGENCY TRAPS

• Stuck in triage mode

• Reflect on intentions and actions
• Stop self-defeating habits that keep you in constant
state of elevated urgency

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2. BRING FOCUS TO RIGHT PRIORITIES

• Focus on less important work

• At expense of highest priorities
• Routine behaviours become accepted norms
• Honest assessment of highest priorities

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3. AVOID EXTREME TILTS

• Ideally pivot from reflection to action

• Cannot reduce demands faced
• Cannot attack them with reckless abandon of
unchecked urgency

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3. AVOID EXTREME TILTS

• Not every issue requires same approach

• Consciously and subtly turn down or dial up required
elements of reflection and urgency

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3. AVOID EXTREME TILTS

• Avoid temptation to rush and leave half-considered

issues
• Scheduling shorter meetings or setting self-imposed
timelines

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3. AVOID EXTREME TILTS

• Avoid temptation to treat every initiative same

• 50/50 reflection and action split unrealistic

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REFLECTIVE URGENCY

• Combine reflections with heightened sense of urgency

• Decisiveness and speed not at mercy of
counterproductive habits and unconscious oversights
• Act with best thinking!

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