Ep 8. Build Your Urgency Immunity

Andrea Golding
Jan 2
4 min read

Welcome back to The Chaos of Scale, the podcast and blog dedicated to helping scaling businesses navigate the human side of growth.

In this episode we're talking about urgency — and why, if you want to survive and thrive in a scale-up, you need to build your urgency immunity.

As always, the aim is simple: to leave you with at least one thing to think differently about in how you work with others, and at least one actionable step to help you show up as a rad — or even more rad — human at work.

Life in a Scale-Up: Everything Is Urgent

You know the feeling. Everything feels urgent. It’s noisy. It’s overstimulating.

You’re balancing a bajillion competing priorities, and suddenly every email, every ping, every “quick question” feels like a fire alarm going off.

Before you know it, you’re running on pure adrenaline. Your heart is racing. You’ve probably skipped lunch, and you might not even realise you’ve been holding your breath.

How’s the tension in your neck doing?

In the chaos of scale, it’s dangerously easy to get caught in the adrenaline spin of urgent.

But here’s the truth:

Not everything is urgent.

Urgency Is Addictive — and Unsustainable

There’s that cheesy saying: we’re not performing open-heart surgery.

And yes — if you are saving lives, feel free to ignore this.

But for most of us, if it doesn’t happen right now, no one is going to die.

Urgency often feels like oxygen in a scaling organisation. The business is moving fast. Priorities are shifting. There’s always that buzz of if we don’t act now, we’ll miss the opportunity.

And that buzz? It’s addictive.

Urgency gives us a hit of importance. A sense of being essential. Of saving the day.

But when everything is urgent, nothing actually is.

You end up stuck in constant reaction mode — firefighting instead of building, responding instead of thinking. And that’s when mistakes creep in. Decisions get rushed. And your best people start to burn out.

Where Urgency Really Comes From

Most urgency isn’t real. Often, it’s the result of:

Poor planning
Chronic reactivity
Someone else’s inaction
Someone else outsourcing their stress

And here’s the key line:

Someone else’s urgency does not have to become your urgency.

I’ve seen team members get completely consumed by other people’s panic. And I always ask them the same question: What happens if you choose not to absorb it?

How do you show up when you shield yourself from the panic versus when you immerse yourself in it? The physiological experience of urgency — that adrenaline rush — is addictive. And it’s exhausting.

Building Urgency Immunity

So what’s the antidote? You build urgency immunity.

You choose to stay calm when everyone else is spiralling. There is nothing constructive to be gained by jumping on the panic bandwagon. Your best thinking does not happen there.

When urgency lands, pause for quality.

Stop.

Take a breath.

Hang out in that magical space between stimulus and response.

Ask:

Is this really urgent?
Urgent for who?
And why?

If the answer is yes — this is genuinely urgent — then drop everything and solve the problem. But do it with calm logic, not panic. Don’t sacrifice clear thinking for speed. Solve it properly.

Shielding Yourself from Projected Panic

If, after reassessing, you realise it’s perceived urgency — someone else’s bad planning, forgotten deadline, or emotional offload — then you get to shield yourself.

Panic is contagious.

Adrenaline is addictive.

You don’t have to let it in.

I imagine it washing over me and swirling around me, while I stand there with a shield up and a gas mask on. I can still care. I can still help. But I don’t breathe in the fumes.

This doesn’t mean becoming cold or detached. It means managing expectations calmly and firmly. “I understand this is time-sensitive. Here’s what I can help with — and by when.”

Why Urgency Immunity Matters

Urgency immunity protects:

Your focus
Your sanity
Your productivity
Your team

It keeps you in the driver’s seat instead of living in perpetual firefighting mode.

Because if you don’t build urgency immunity, urgency will own you — especially in the chaos of scale.

It will dictate your priorities.

Your energy.

Your creativity.

Your mood.

And it will do the same to your team.

Building urgency immunity doesn’t mean you stop caring. It means you choose what’s worth your 'intensity' and what isn’t.

The best leaders don’t absorb chaos. They wade through it — calmly and intentionally — and help others find their footing along the way.

Your Action Items

When urgency lands:

Pause.
Sit in that space between stimulus and response. Decide how you want to respond — not how you’re being pushed to react.
Identify your urgency hotspots.
Where does most of the panic in your world come from? Prepare your armour for those moments.

Let urgency wash over you — not into you. And teach your team to do the same. Your productivity will improve. Your mental and physical health will improve.

Urgency immunity isn’t optional at scale — it’s essential.

Business growth is messy.

But the human side doesn’t have to be.

Until next time.