This Approach to Prioritizing Projects Is Simple, Proven, and Effective

Leaders are frequently confronted with a lengthy list of projects that is almost always in flux for a variety of reasons: fluid business priorities, dependencies across functions or teams, budget changes, the addition of new objectives, and more.? Sometimes it's easy to figure out the order in which this to-do list should be addressed, but often, it isn't clear how best to go about choosing which objectives to take on when, and even experienced senior leaders at major companies have been known to bog down in indecision as a result.

A very simple and proven way to tackle this problem is to break your list down into smaller, sort-able chunks.? After you've done that once, you can continue to sort the resultant groupings, using as many iterations as it takes to get to a list that is clear, actionable, and manageable.

Here's what to do. Assign each item on your list one of the following values:

1 - Mission critical: If we don't do this, the company will fail.

2 - Important: Doing this will either help capture a significant business opportunity or avoid a significant threat.

3 - Nice to Have: Doing this will add value, but the business can survive and even thrive without it.

Don't be tempted to add additional categories - you don't need them and they will undermine the clarity that this 1-2-3 approach brings. Once you have your three categories, sort the line items in each group in order of importance.? You are NOT allowed to have any ties and you can't cheat with 1a, 1b, 1c, etc.?

Often, a single sort is enough to uncover at least the 1s and 2s, but if you find that any sub list is too long to stack rank the items within it, just use the same 1-2-3 method on each sub list as many times as you need to in order to get sub-sub lists that are short enough to stack rank.

(My own experience has been that, after the first pass, you will already likely end up with a very manageable list of 1s, a list of 2s that requires at most one additional sort, and a long list of 3s, that quite honestly, you are unlikely to need to tackle because the now-identified 1s and 2s will keep you and your team fully occupied.)

Finally, re-assemble your sub lists, using the sorting and stack ranking you have performed to create a single list that you can start attacking from the top, down.? Review this list regularly to accommodate new projects, remove completed initiatives, ensure that line items don't need to be re-categorized, and adjust relative priority based on changes to business priorities and conditions.

This simple method has been used to help teams at all levels through major business and product launches, in both its simplest version, as explained above, as well as in modified forms that include additional inputs such as dependencies and required resources.? It isn't rocket science and it isn't dazzling in its ingenuity, but it is straightforward, flexible, and highly effective.? Try it, and see what you think.