Preparing to prioritise is as important as the task of prioritisation

All too often, prioritisation sessions result in self serving outcomes.

Over the years, we’ve observed many examples of “louder voices” or “more senior” resource championing their own mandate. This approach ensures their initiative remains on the project list when it shouldn’t necessarily be the case. It will often be the businesses underlying culture that has allowed this behaviour to win out.

In this example, one could make an argument that this is a failing of the Executive. 

If a business is to make optimal prioritisation decisions, it’s imperative that some big questions are asked up front. The Answers will provide the context by which decisions are made.

Using independent resource will help ensure objectivity, both in attempting to ask, answer and analyse the big questions up front. In the larger/enterprise businesses, high value internal resource such as Commercial Analysts may exist, they should always be deployed in the early/preparation phases of prioritisation as they will be objective enough to support the process and drive at the optimal outcome.

In its purest form, once the criteria is well set, understood and clear, a business can then embark on the process of determining the decisions and outcomes from prioritisation. We advise participants to think like a Shareholder where possible. Whilst this wont always safeguard the optimal outcomes, it will go a long way to avoiding the self serving decisions businesses often endure. It will also enable the conversation to be better formed around the numbers.

Peruse some related examples below.