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Summary
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on prioritization, led by Harry Max, author of Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions. Part 1 | Part 3 For executives, prioritization comes down to the ordinal list of what matters most. The challenge, however, is that they must deal with an array of competing imperatives: how to make money, use resources efficiently, pursue goals and objectives, satisfy existing customers or constituents, grow market share, hire and retain talent, manage unit cost economics, and so on. And pitting one imperative against another is tricky business. It’s a tightrope act. But leaving it to chance isn’t an option. Effective prioritization unlocks the latent power of teams. It supercharges strategy activation and taps the potential to align people to accelerate and get traction. Clear priorities enable change. This conversation will explore why leaders must prioritize at the right logical level to achieve their desired results.
Key Insights
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Prioritization is a continuous and iterative process involving constant re-evaluation, influenced by periodic and episodic events.
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Leaders face more complex prioritization challenges due to conflicting imperatives across teams and organizations compared to individuals or small teams.
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Balancing speed and accuracy ('fast versus right') in prioritization is crucial to avoid costly delays or flawed decisions.
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Operating models, such as Salesforce’s V2MOM and EOS frameworks, provide essential structures that align priorities and facilitate decision making.
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Delegating prioritization effectively depends on assigning ownership to people with the right strengths and ensuring safe communication for course correction.
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Explicit prioritization lists help reduce noise and foster coordination across teams by clarifying what work is truly important.
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It’s important to recognize when lower prioritized items are necessities in disguise that require a baseline time investment to avoid future costs.
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Distinguishing reversible (Type 2) from non-reversible (Type 1) decisions guides how much rigor and time to invest in prioritization and decision making.
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Goals, priorities, and OKRs are tightly linked; clear priorities guide the selection of relevant, measurable OKRs that reflect what matters most to the organization.
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Prioritization processes do not make decisions for you; judgment and human factors remain critical to allocate resources and respond to changing situations.
Notable Quotes
"You never have enough time or enough people to actually get done everything you wish you could."
"Prioritization is one of those fractal topics that can go from the micro to the macro level."
"The last thing you want to do is get it right and end up with it being wrong."
"All lists are prioritized lists — what's most important should be at the top."
"If your priorities are roughly aligned with organizational priorities, you’ll be making good trade-offs."
"Start with yourself in prioritization, and you’ll likely infect your team and then the organization."
"Your priorities don’t tell you what to do — your judgment makes the decisions."
"Balancing the right versus the right now is key when moving things forward under urgency."
"Publishing an explicit list of priorities reduces noise and helps coordinate work across groups."
"The way to fix a bad decision is several good ones after it."
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