Setting Priorities in a Time of Crisis

At the onset of COVID, Organizations are realized that creating priorities for even the next quarter seemed nearly impossible.?Creating priorities is still as important as ever in a time of crisis, but the way we create them should be focus more on analyzing risks and brainstorming ideas that can overcome those risks.?Additionally, the length of time will be shorter, and the rhythms of reviewing progress must be much more frequent.?The following is our playbook for how to create rocks over a shorter period during a time of crisis.

Developing Priorities in a Crisis:?

Length of time:?Given the speed at which things are changing, 90 days is just too long right now.?Instead, there is a lot to be learned from the concept of short sprints during this time.?Look at your priorities for periods no longer than 2-4 weeks.?The goal is to identify a handful of priorities you must complete in the next 2-4 weeks for your organization to survive and be positioned to thrive when we come out of the current crisis.?Whether you choose two, three, or four weeks is up to you.?Do what feels right for your situation, based on how quickly you need results and the unique culture and skill of your team.

How to Develop:?We are big fans of the Risk Mitigation tool that our friends at?C-12?created. The process outlined below is influenced by that framework.?Follow these steps to identify your Rocks:

1. Document risk factors?by each of the following areas of your organization: Operations, Revenue Generation, Organizational Development and Financial Management
2. Assess Probability– Once you have each risk factors identified, indicate if each risk is certain, likely, even odds, unlikely, impossible.
3. Focused Ideation-?Consider the risks scored certain or likely.?Also, think about their impact.?Focus your ideation efforts on the risks that are both high (negative) impact to your organization and certain or likely to occur. Brainstorm ideas to pivot to new creative product solutions, improved service models, cost reduction measures, mission advancement initiatives, etc.
4. Identity Filter– Sometimes, amid a crisis, even good teams can lose a sense of who they are.?To ensure you don’t start executing on ideas from your brainstorming session that are out of alignment with your core identity, do a quick filter through these three questions.?Make sure you get a 3/3 to move forward. 1. Does it honor our mission? 2. Will it embody our core values? 3. Does it lean on our unique strengths?
5. Rock Prioritization: Once your ideas pass through your identity filter, rank them from highest impact to lowest impact and effort.?You are looking for a combination of lowest effort and highest impact. Choose no more than 5 rocks to focus on for each two to four-week period.

Applying Agile Values and Rhythms:??There is a lot we can learn from the principles of Agile Development for the current times. The following Agile rhythms will help your team gain traction on your newly set priorities. If you aren't familiar with Agile, this is a great resource to learn the basics.

Stand-ups: Teams meet daily for a quick?15-minute standup meeting.?It never lasts longer than 15 minutes.?Borrowing from that format, get your team together and do a quick rock check.?Each owner should report on progress of their rock.?They should answer three simple questions related to their rock(s):

1. Progress report out-??Consider the following questions: Did you need to make any pivots??What key decisions were made yesterday? What activities did you complete moving you closer to achieving that rock?
2. Collaboration Opportunities and Accountability–?What are you working on today?
3. Removing Barriers- What blockers are in your way? This is an exercise for the whole team. If someone foresees an issue that will present a roadblock to rock progress, they should share it here.?Additionally, everyone should be carrying a mindset of “what happens if I don’t make progress today?”

Another key principle of Agile development is the concept of the?minimal viable product (MVP).?The impact of COVID-19 should force us all to embrace this idea.?Get the new ideas that become your rocks up and running as soon as possible.?Beta versions are great.?Iterate, iterate, iterate.?Get your new service, product, etc. in front of your client/consumer/constituent, learn and make it better every day.?Focus on the 20% of functionality/value that will get you 80% of the desired impact.

Weekly checkpoints– In addition to the daily standups, each week, decide if you should continue with your rock.?With cash running low and shrinking pipelines, leaders need to quickly pull the plug on new ideas that are floundering.?If you sense early on a new idea isn’t working, the opportunity cost to keep going for two to four weeks is too high.?Review every rock and decide as a team to continue or not.??As always, with EOS, if you can’t reach consensus make sure your visionary, or integrator if you have one, breaks the tie so you can move forward.?Alignment and direction for your team are more important than ever. Once you decide to stop pursuing a rock, be sure to communicate, if appropriate, to the rest of your organization why and what the new direction is.

*If you decide to pursue a new rock in the middle of the period, discuss what you will STOP doing to make room for the new rock.?Don’t just add more rocks.?Now more than ever, your team needs to be focused on a handful of priorities.

Retrospectives– At the end of each?two to four-week period, meet for 30-60 minutes to review the progress made on your wartime rocks.??Our current situation may?suggest?time is too short for a meeting like?this but?investing?in this short meeting?will save much more time for?the?next round of rocks.?Review the following?three?questions at each retrospective:?

Question 1: What went well??This is an?open-ended?question, but?here are a few?examples?to get the conversation moving:?

• Did we lead well??
• Did we?honor our core values and reason for existence??
• Did we pull the plug on rocks when we should have????
• Did we work well as a team??
• Did we hold our daily standups??Were they productive??

Question 2: What could have gone better???This is also an?open-ended?question.?Here a few examples of what to?consider:?

• Did we provide direction for the rest of the organization??
• Did?we?hold on to rocks too long??
• How many rocks did we complete??
• What type of impact are our new ideas having?on the future of our?organization??
• How well did we work together as a team??

Question 3: What are the two to three actions?we will?focus on improving?in our next round of rocks??

Bottom line:?Right?now,?leaders need to?be?simultaneously?focused?and agile.?We must choose only a handful of new ideas to pivot to, hold them loosely,?and?stand?ready to abandon them the second it?becomes clear they aren’t viable.??To support shorter?periods of rocks, leaders?must?embrace new rhythms?which?encourage open communication and collaboration.??The three practices of?1)setting?crisis rocks,?2)reviewing them daily, and?3)holding a mini-retrospective at the end of each?two to four-week?period?will go a long way in developing agile leaders?who?can quickly?allocate resources and efforts to new ideas that enable your organization to survive now and thrive in the future.??

Stay strong and lead well!?

Please reach out to us if you want to learn more about how to implement wartime rocks at your organization.?