In the whirlwind of business chaos, where the heat is high and the stakes even higher, Maartje steps in with practical wisdom on mastering the art of prioritization. She delves into the necessity of stripping back to the essentials, advocating for a reductionist approach that not only clarifies what truly matters but also lightens the load on overburdened teams. With a blend of personal insights and professional strategies, Maartje offers a guide to cutting through the noise, enabling leaders to refocus on their core objectives and navigate their way out of the fire towards a clearer, more directed future.

About the Host:

Your host, Maartje van Krieken, brings a wealth of experience from the front lines of business turmoil. With a background in crisis management, managing transformation and complex collaboration, she has successfully guided numerous organizations through their most challenging times. Her unique perspective and practical approach make her the go to First Responder in the arena of business turmoil and crisis.

Podcast Homepage: https://www.thebusinessemergencyroom.com/

https://www.thechaosgamesconsulting.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartje/

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Maartje van Krieken: Hey, welcome back. I'm glad you're here. Today, we're going to talk about first aid kits. Again, the topic is prioritization. It's one of my favorite subjects, and definitely a challenge or a subject that needs addressing. I think these days, for everybody kind of always, but even more so in in chaos or when you are in a business emergency.

So here we go, prioritization. It definitely feels like everything is happening everywhere, all at once, all the time, and most organizations and individuals definitely suffer from mission creep. With the amount of information and news and things we're subjected to, we perpetually feel that there is more we should be doing than we're doing, and so we're trying to keep up with it all, and usually keep adding to our plates without taking anything off. So on top of that, if you work in a larger organization, everybody has its own list of priorities, and at first sight, they might not always gel together. And then the individuals who work for you have their work priorities and their private priorities, and especially if a situation has been stressful and emotional and been building up over a while, then there's usually a lot to weed through in that front too, and a bit of a balancing act needed, which we will talk more about when we talk about team dynamics, etc. But yeah, a lot of the tools that we're going to talk about today are also actually quite useful at an individual level. So prioritization in the moment, for me, is about purely about reduction. Most teams and organizations and businesses try to do too much by trying to spread themselves too thin. None of it gets done well enough, which usually definitely is a usually what just always in in some way, shape or form. Yeah, a contributor to the situation. So how do we, how do we start cutting down the workload so that we can create some time and space to address the issues that really need addressing to get back into shape and yeah, have a long term future, right? So there is two questions that I've used, both in business and private. I deployed this trick myself. I am in my years as a coach. This is one of the things I assigned the professionals working with me regularly to it's such a simple trick, and sometimes we so forget to do this. So trick number one is take a piece of paper or make a nice spreadsheet with some columns, put down all the things that you are working on or that need doing, and then note down behind it says who and why now this says who is at a personal level, always intriguing, because many of us carry these things on our to do list that if we actually start to think about, says who, well, we can come up with is a nameless face, or the answer is they, or them, which in itself is a good indication that maybe It shouldn't be on your list. And then in organizations says who it's important to, there's also usually some stuff that's actually not so clear. It's intriguing. How many pet projects seem to somehow end up becoming real and being worked where nobody really remembers where they came from. So it's a useful tool to actually figure out and say, Okay, this is coming from stakeholders, or this is from whoever holds the purse strings, or this is coming from the legislator. So yeah, there is definitely good reasons to have some of these things on the list.

But being reminded as to who is the main driver between this be behind it being this being a priority also starts to show you where there's maybe room, room to change deadlines, or room to go back and clarify, or room to renegotiate that scope or have a conversation. And there is, for sure, also in the business environment, usually stuff that then immediately can be scrapped off the list. So that's nice, right? That taking some stuff off in a moment, that everything is overwhelming, is always helpful. And it's also such a powerful tool towards your team and your staff, saying, Hey, I'm willing to let go of some things to create the space and the capacity to do what we need to do. It's a huge trust builder and sometimes a confidence builder too. Then the other question, why now again, make insightful. What creates the pressure or the deadline? But is it, and do you need the whole piece of work for that, or is the why now driven by that, a draft version needs to go in some. Where or are you suddenly reminded? Because I've seen that happen too, that we go through this list and people put a date down, and then people like, where did that date come from? Then people go back and said, Oh, yeah, we didn't really have a date for this, so we just put a nominal date on it, and it was never updated, right? It's again, intriguing how we we're not always that good with keeping track of our decisions and the why and the how and the corporate memory of why we do what we do. So refreshing says who and why now really helps to create immediately some insight as to where you're at and what's all on that list. Then the first thing I would do is assuming you can then move that list around a bit with with kind of maybe at least categories high, medium and low priorities or something sometimes really hard to really put them in an exact 12345, order, but you should be at least be able to categorize them somewhat. Then I would use your vision as a filter, right? So what is it that your business is about, or your project team is about? Where do you need to go? What? What is it that you're supposed to deliver? And if you really look at your mission and your vision and then look at the priorities, does that change the list? And usually it does, and it helps, again, to to kind of get more clarity on the priority in the order, and at least should move some stuff to the let's see if we can convince whoever we got this priority from that maybe it isn't as high priority anymore.

Or maybe, again, you're able to take some of some of the list when or if your mission and your vision are not actually helpful in doing that filter, which can happen right? It's usually an indication that that needs work again. And that usually comes out that in your guts, you or your team members or even the whole group sort of knows that stuff really should be on the list. But if you really look at the vision, it isn't a fit. And it's kind of like, well, we do need to do that. Or theresometimes is also, yeah, often change or major organizational mergers or divestments, etc, often also result in in emergencies or crisis of some sort. So then it's often the case that the vision and the mission isn't really updated with the whole new structure, right? So then there is, there's questions, there's like, well, it could be, but it we're not really clear if it still fits with the new direction. So it's also useful to find that out, because that's then a set of conversations that need to be kicked off too, and you probably need to do a little bit of reframing around your mission and vision vision to kind of revisit that or strengthen it so that it is actually a useful tool in the your navigation again, then the other thing that usually comes up in this early stage when you're trying to cull the number of priorities that are being worked is that there's usually some hierarchy. So if you're sitting in a if you're working with larger teams or larger organizations, and hence, there is different people who bring their priorities to the table. So you're sitting in a leadership team meeting, and everybody in the team has their own priorities with their own departments. We got to remember that whoever shouts loudest is not necessarily most right, and that whoever shouts loudest, you know, may also be right, but maybe talking about the same thing in a different order. Maybe that doesn't sound great, but I mean is that I've seen so often that in these situations, there's, for instance, somebody in the in the finance arena, right, who is really focused on this one audit over there's one piece or this, and just really cannot think behind beyond this point where they need to deliver X, Y, reset. And so it's talking about that keeps bringing it up, and really is trying to make it clear to everybody that if you don't do that scope, it affects the license to operate or whatever.

Well, there's several things possible, right? It's possible that that's work that they need to do every year, and despite the whole organization being in crisis, they are actually resourced for it. They've actually done month over month the work that leads up to it. So, yeah, we shouldn't forget about it, and it cannot open the list, but it's actually more of a business as usual item than an extra hour, additional priority. I've also always seen plenty of thrives. They're just simply miscommunication and that there is a higher priority of pulling stuff together to make a decision on this investment deal or divestment deal, and that the left hand doesn't really. We hear in operations phrases doesn't really hear or recognize that that piece of financial analysis isn't in part of that, and that maybe the finance person doesn't know that you're talking about other parts of the same deal because you're you labeled it differently, or is not quite understood that ultimately these things go together into the same ultimate product. Those things happen, particularly when things have been moving at a really high pace, when there's been growth or change, when there's been new people put in place. None of it is badly intended by everybody, nothing. It's also not usually necessarily a sign of anybody's capacity or capabilities. Things just happen where people work together, right? So when you get really into heated debates about priorities, there is some time there's usually actually something around the hierarchy of these priorities, right? Are they actually a sub priority of something, or are you talking about priorities that that are at the same level? Are they are discipline level, department level? Because also it might be that the top three or four big priorities that need work need actually very little finance support. And your finance team might be amazing at all the work they do, but not necessarily have the people that can help you out working some of these other priorities. So if they then continue with their business as usual, whilst the rest is working on some of those top items, that might actually be okay. So when there's really disagreement and conflict, have a think about where things sit. If you actually go looking for prioritization tools, then you can find endless and endless and endless tools and systems and things that you can deploy. I think I like all of them or none of them specifically. I think tools are there to do for you to do what you need to do.

So pick one of personal preference, as if you have somebody in your team or in House who's very familiar with one of these things, yeah, let them deploy it, because all of these things are just great ways to help you restructure the same information differently, which will help with progressive insight. So tools that you can think of are Pareto analysis, the the racchi matrix, Kanban. There's a B, C, D, E method, there's a Moscow method. There's there's heaps of them out there. They're all different ways to put your total list in matrixes or in in on boards, or make it visual and help you have these conversations. Right? So yes, by all means, use them. What I think is more important than which tool you choose is that you have some kind of systemic conversation about priorities, right? So if you're still in your emergency, then okay, you might do a first round and stuff, and not immediately have time to think about how you then embed doing this work. But I think prioritization and revisiting priorities on a regular basis, and what tools you use for that is important. And I think once things are a little calmer, it's definitely one of the things you want to look at. Because the main thing is, if you add something to your plate, something might have to come off, and your organization and your people, and even you need to to keep yourself honest and know how to do that right. What is what is it that I, that I use to do that and and we do it at home, with our partners, or for those who offer our parents and then have kids who want to try something new or different or a different sport, every time, we also say at some point it's not also I can't drive three kids to 17 different sports. So let's choose, right? You now started to do this, or you started to at training hours, or went up a team. So now something else got to go. And somehow we find it easier to see in somebody else sometimes. And so we need to be reminded. And we are reminded by if we force ourselves to periodically look at these things or to get into routine, to say, Okay, if we're adding an initiative or every team meeting we have, we're just going to have it on the agenda. What is it that we added now because of the decisions we made today? Does that mean something else needs to go or needs to be deprioritized to make it happen? And that brings me to what I would call the fine tuning, which in a business emergency, to me, is less important, but definitely, if you're running a business in a very dynamic environment.

These are the things that come into play when you start to think a bit more long term. How am I going to work prioritization in my organization? And then it's more about not just reducing or culling the list, right? Because that's mainly what we've talked about so far. Now we're getting into okay, how do we really have. Have the right priorities. So if you cope the list down to, I don't know, 70% of what it was, there's probably still stuff on there that also could come off right. And then you you go into fine tuning, and things that I think come into or come into play, usually in the situations I work in right in that the high pressure, high change, locals of dynamics, the things to use to fine tune is resource loading. Yeah, then you need to start to have a look at, where are your priorities, and do they all sit too much with the same people, or do they call on the same resources? Is that actually? Is that feasible? Do we need to change, expand, or do we need different resources? Is that, if that's how we're we want to run the business, and if these are really our priorities or and how are we going to manage the conflicts they're in? Right? Because if you have conflicting priorities, or you have too much so you don't immediately have more people, right? So how do you protect your people, and how are you going to keep an extra eye on the resource loading of those specific priorities to make sure that you don't have another derailment? Look at decision bias, right? Maybe you should use one of the tools or one of the spreadsheets or talk somebody else through your logic. Did you look at it with a diverse and wide enough group or with a few thinking, yeah, we can sort it between us and where you're really honest with yourself. Sometimes it helps to just talk somebody through your logic, and somebody can say, hey, you've now three times said this, but it didn't gel with what you said two minutes ago. Right? It's amazing how sometimes we can fool ourselves performance somehow, sometimes things are on the priority list and make no progress. So something's wrong. Is it not well defined? Is it not actually part why are they not making progress? Did we think the timing was this, or timing was driven by that? But actually, people need to do it this, like a chicken and egg situation, where the people need to do it say, Yeah, but I can't do any of it until I have these pieces or this information, or till whatever is approved or done or arrived.

And so there's something wrong with how that scope is defined and fits. So have a look at performance, to look at your priorities. Also have a good look at your long term versus short term balance. So go back to some of the timelines and say, Is everything we're doing driving our short term agenda, what's in there that's helping our business long term? Did we now we're coming out of the emergency? Did we lose sight of the long term a little bit too much? And do we need to bring that back? And so I think their stakeholder input is important, right? So going back to the says who. And if you actually look at your says who list, is that a reflection of the people who should have a say in what you work on or where your priorities are, is their voices entirely missing? Or do some voices have a disproportionate air time in working this? So yeah, if you want to fine tune your prioritization. Think back to going to tools or other systems to make sure that your reasoning is sound and your decision making becomes less biased when you work on priorities. Look at your research loading, look at your performance. Have a look at long versus short term and have a look at your stakeholder mapping. All right, so yeah, that's it for today. What I had on prioritization, the immediate need and use of this, to me, is to call down the list, to cool down the list when things are tough, so that you can create some breathing room, right? And it's yeah. Don't underestimate how many things maybe should have been off the priority list already, and somehow that message didn't trickle down. So communicating on that, of course, also key, because otherwise you won't have the effect. But it's yeah, in my experience, is very typical to cut 20% of the list with very little effort, very quickly, or at least say, okay, we can hold off for a month or two, or even we're not going to work any of this, because we need to get out of this. And if we don't get out of this, none of these things matter. So they're second or third order, so they're going to sit, they're going to sit for a while, until we've gotten to a place where we can reconsider.

So thank you again for tuning in. I hope that you will use this and prioritize better starting tomorrow. I think we all love to do lots of things in life, and I will wish for you to be able to do all of them, which also means that we need to take off some of the stuff that doesn't need to happen, and need to happen anymore, right, managing that energy balance. Thank you very much, and I'll talk to you next time.