By George Hall
“False urgency exhausts people. True urgency nourishes them.” — John Kotter
In Part 1 of this series, “Breaking Complacency, Sparking Change,” we explored how organizational change begins by confronting complacency and igniting genuine urgency. In this second piece, we turn to the harder work—disarming resistance, sustaining momentum, and understanding why even successful organizations so often stall when faced with the need to change.
Disarm Resistance: The Power of the “No-Nos”
In our interview, Harvard Professor John Kotter warned that every change effort awakens a subtle opposition—individuals who, consciously or not, defend the status quo. He called them the “No-Nos.” They don’t always argue openly or sabotage initiatives, although they can. More often, they slow things down with reasonable-sounding objections: We’ve tried that before. Let’s wait for the next quarter. This might not be the right time.
“They are astonishingly effective,” Kotter told me, “Primarily because they’ve practiced it for years.” The “No-Nos” are not cartoon villains—they’re experienced professionals whose caution and political savvy have often been rewarded. That’s what makes them dangerous or formidable opponents. Their resistance sounds responsible.
What to Do
Don’t waste energy trying to convert them. Redirect attention to those who are willing to move. Kotter offered a story of a leader who literally reassigned a chronic blocker overseas, removing their influence while giving them legitimate work to do. In modern terms, this means repositioning resistance—shifting or neutralizing a person or process so it can no longer choke progress.
But the real antidote is narrative. Construct a narrative around your change initiatives. When stories of success outnumber stories of failure, cynicism loses its audience.
For learning leaders, this means flooding the environment with examples of progress—pilot programs that worked, learners who grew, teams that adapted. Momentum, not argument, changes minds.
L&D Insight
Progress is the most persuasive form of communication.
When Success Becomes the Enemy of Urgency
The deeper danger Kotter identified is that resistance often grows strongest not in failure, but in success. “Historic success,” he told me, “Tends to create inwardly focused cultures that reinforce contentment with the status quo.” Why change when things are going well?
It’s a profound paradox. The systems that make an organization great—consistency, expertise, efficiency—also make it resistant to unlearning. Past victories build what Kotter called an “emotional bubble of safety.” Within that bubble, familiar methods feel not just comfortable but moral—proof that discipline and loyalty pay off and will keep paying off (for them). Leaders start protecting yesterday’s answers instead of pursuing tomorrow’s questions.
Psychologically, this is the Complacency Trap. Teams tell themselves, “We’ve earned a break. We know our customers. We’ve seen this all before.” Those beliefs harden into identity, and identity defends itself. Soon, feedback loops tighten, conversations become more internal, and the organization slowly stops scanning the horizon.
For L&D professionals, this is where learning culture becomes existential. Training alone cannot break complacency; curiosity must. The goal is not to shame the past but to treat it as a foundation for experimentation. Success should breed confidence to explore, not fear of losing what has been built.
What to Do
Build mechanisms that pull the outside world in—customer stories, emerging trends, cross-industry case studies. Pair data with empathy. When people encounter fresh perspectives, the comfort of routine begins to crack. True urgency isn’t about panic; it’s about waking up to possibility.
L&D Insight
Success without reflection is the beginning of decline.
Practice “Urgent Patience”
Few phrases in Kotter’s work carry as much wisdom as “Urgent Patience.” He described it as the ability to push relentlessly while accepting that big change takes time. “Without patience,” he said, “you let up too early and the whole thing falls apart. But patience alone doesn’t do it. You must do something every single day.”
This adaptive dual mindset is essential for modern L&D leaders. We’re expected to deliver quick results—completions, dashboards, ROI—while driving cultural shifts that may take years. Urgent patience reframes time itself as a leadership skill. It’s not about speed or slowness, but rhythm: when to press forward and when to allow learning to settle.
The bridge between urgency and patience, Kotter argued, is meaningful progress. Here, Karl Weick’s idea of “Small Wins” comes into play. This is surely a “must-read” article. Weick argues that incremental victories create visible proof that change works. They transform anxiety into motivation and sustain hope over the long haul.
What to Do
Engineer small wins intentionally. Break large transformations into visible milestones. Celebrate them publicly, not with vanity metrics but with stories of real impact. Each small win becomes a micro-lesson in how change feels and what it requires.
L&D Insight
Urgent patience turns persistence into progress.
Lead with Emotional Realism
Kotter drew a sharp line between False Urgency—activity fueled by anxiety—and true urgency, which is opportunity-driven and energizing. “False urgency is frenetic,” he said. “People run in circles, and after a while it grinds them down.” True Urgency, by contrast, replenishes energy because it connects to purpose.
For learning leaders, emotional realism means acknowledging that change is hard. Resistance, fatigue, and confusion are normal—not signs of failure. The task isn’t to eliminate discomfort but to make it productive. When leaders speak honestly about challenges while keeping purpose in view, they transform fear into focus.
Urgent patience, then, is not just a technique—it’s a moral stance. It values consistency over control, empathy over ego, and momentum over perfection. It’s the difference between managing change and stewarding it.
From Change Management to Change Mastery
Kotter’s final words in our interview remain as relevant now as when he said them: “In a fast-moving world, it may feel like change is inevitable—but decline isn’t. Get a sense of urgency, and you have a fighting chance.”
For L&D, that fighting chance comes from modeling what continuous learning looks like. Every initiative, from onboarding to leadership development, is a living experiment in adaptability. Every learner who tries something new is proof that change is possible.
To lead learning today is to practice urgent patience—to move fast enough to matter, yet slow enough to last. Success will come and go; curiosity must remain.
References
- Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
- Kotter, J. P. (2008). A Sense of Urgency. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
- Kotter, J. P. (2014). Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
- Kotter, J. P., & Rathgeber, H. (2006). Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
- Weick, K. E. (1984). Small wins: Redefining the scale of social problems. American Psychologist, 39(1), 40–49
Image credit: Alina Naumova
