As companies grow, a subtle shift happens.

Everything becomes urgent.

Slack pings multiply.
Meetings stack up.
Deadlines tighten.
Escalations increase.

From the outside, it looks like intensity.

From the inside, it often feels like friction.

And over time, urgency replaces speed.

The Illusion of Motion

Urgency creates visible activity:

• Faster replies
• More meetings
• Shorter timelines
• Stronger language

Speed, on the other hand, creates results:

• Clear decisions
• Clean ownership
• Fewer handoffs
• Measurable outcomes

One looks loud.
The other feels quiet.

Growing organizations often optimize for the first.

👉 If your organization feels constantly urgent but not measurably faster, happy to compare notes.

Before vs. After

Before

• Small team
• Direct conversations
• Clear tradeoffs
• Decisions made in the room
• Features shipped quickly

After

• Cross-functional alignment
• Escalations for visibility
• “Quick syncs” about quick syncs
• Multiple stakeholders weighing in
• More energy, less velocity

Nothing seems broken.

But the signal-to-noise ratio changes.

Why Urgency Feels Safer

Urgency signals commitment.

It shows leadership cares.
It demonstrates responsiveness.
It creates the perception of momentum.

But urgency doesn’t reduce complexity.

It amplifies it.

When everything is urgent:

• Priorities blur
• Teams context-switch
• Decisions get revisited
• Work expands to fill emotional pressure

That’s when speed declines.

The Hidden Cost

Urgency taxes attention.

Speed protects it.

Sustainable speed requires:

• Fewer active priorities
• Stable ownership
• Clear escalation paths
• Defined decision authority

Urgency requires none of those.

It only requires energy.

And energy alone doesn’t scale.

A Leadership Reflection

Look at your calendar.

How many meetings are about:

• Clarifying confusion?
• Re-aligning priorities?
• Revisiting decisions?
• Escalating something “urgent”?

Now ask:

If those didn’t exist, would your company be slower —
or faster?

That answer usually reveals the real bottleneck.

The Discipline of Calm

The fastest organizations I’ve seen don’t feel frantic.

They feel decisive.

They make fewer promises.
They protect ownership.
They tolerate discomfort in order to preserve clarity.

Urgency feels productive.

Speed is disciplined.

👉 If you’re navigating the tension between urgency and sustainable speed as you scale, I’m always open to comparing notes.

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