Many managers do not realize that "not" making a decision is, in fact, making a decision.  They search for more data to make them feel better about a decision, but by the time that they have that warm and cozy feeling, the time for a decision has passed them by.

Knowing when to show a sense of urgency, when to make the first small decision, is an art that most project managers struggle to master.  If a manager is able to make a small decision, they can always make another decision down the road.

Managers can show that edge, that sense of urgency that does not cross over into impatience, by insisting that action items have both someone assigned to get the job done and a deadline for getting that job done.  Deadlines should always be a slight stretch in order to get the mind and body operating at peak performance.

If you can finish a project on time, or even ahead of time, your organization can be poised to move on to something new.  If you are always bogged down in delays, then you continue to do the same old things while others move on to the new technologies, the new toys, or new levels of achievement.  The things that you end up doing may be good, but they may only be the market leftovers.  The best things may already have been scooped up by more alert people and companies.

Urgency is then the balance between patience and impatience.  It helps us find our balance and pursue better things than we might have found without the slight stretch to our abilities.  Two lines from Verse 26* of the Tao remind us of this balance.

"The inner is the foundation of the outer
The still is the master of the restless"

*Tao Te Ching, The Definitive Edition, Lao Tzu with Translation and Commentary by Jonathan Star, Jeremy P Tarcher/Penguin, 2001, page 39