Technologies and Tools

Priorities

• How often have you wondered where to focus your attention and energies?
• How do you make sure that what you are doing is consistent with organizational objectives?
• How do you and your colleagues coordinate and align on the work to be done?

A Technology for Accomplishment

Your effectiveness begins with clarity on the results you are after. This allows you to focus your resources on achieving them. We are all most effective when we work inside a bigger picture.

One key technology for success is creating and working from yearly, monthly and weekly priorities for individuals and for your team, department and/or organization.

By "priority" we don’t mean "the latest emergency." A priority is the most leveraged action this week or this month that will lead to delivering on a long-term accomplishment. Note this is not the same as a “to do” list. Priorities require thinking about the most important actions to take and how you will measure real accomplishment.

Priorities are most effective when (a) they have been formulated with specific reference to year-long (or longer) objectives, and (b) they are clearly understood and the product of a consensus among all personnel involved in their fulfillment.

Advantages of working from priorities

The advantages of working from priorities include:

• Providing a method and a structure for generating department-wide (or company or group) priorities and fostering department-wide support for their completion,
• Providing a framework for individuals to identify their priorities inside a shared understanding about the results to be produced and who is accountable for them,
• Monitoring the status of individual projects on a weekly and monthly basis and providing feedback for employee performance evaluation, and
• Encouraging focus, fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction on an individual and department-wide basis.

Back to top

Back to Technologies and Tools