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3 #bestpractical Tips for Prioritisation

3 #bestpractical tips for prioritisation

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Business leaders often feel challenged about the #bestpractical way to prioritise projects and tasks.

I was talking to a client this week and she explained how she was forced to participate in two overlapping MS Teams meetings at the same time. She was not able to add value to any one of them and felt lost.  My comment to her was that “Busyness Business” and we need to deal with prioritisation.

The pressure to change has grown exponentially, but the amount of change that leaders attempt to implement is actually counter-productive.

I have spent the past 12 years helping leaders to choose better projects to invest in, and here are my top 3 best practical tips for prioritisation.

3 #bestpractical Tips for Prioritisation

3 #bestpractical tips for prioritisation

 

Tip 1: Balance priorities 

Deciding on what is really important for the business, sets the framework for how you decide what to invest in.

The McKinsey 3 Horizons model recommends an approach that applies the 70:20:10 rule to balance your investment plan.

It simply means that you allocate you funding pool as follows:

  • 70% on continuous improvement to the existing operational business
  • 20% on transformation by extending into new areas, and
  • 10% on disrupting and creating genuinely new business.

Tip 2: Focus on priorities

Deciding on which projects will move the dial is a science on its own.

Learning from the Pareto principle, the science teaches us that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If we then extend that into prioritisation, we see that 20% of your investment (cost) will generate 80% of the benefits.

Extending it further reveals that the next 16% investment generates only 16% benefits – i.e. you are breaking even and not a good return.

Tip 3: Activate priorities

Once you have activated a project, the momentum and cost spent makes it almost impossible to stop. You have to be very clear on what you activate.

Steve Jobs famously said that for every one thing you say “Yes” to, there are 1000 good ideas you have to say “No” to.

Choose your “Yes” wisely!

Conclusion

Change is only speeding up and growing exponentially. If we do not skill ourselves to prioritise the right investments, then we must stop complaining about busyness.

Prioritisation is a single step in our signature “Profit Improvement” solution where we help business leaders grow their profits in a #bestpractical way.

If you feel stuck in busyness and want to talk through your thinking, then reach out to us on THIS LINK  for a quick coffee chat.

Watch this video on the subject of #bestpractical prioritisation:

 

 

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