Tag Archives: prioritization

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priority strategy

Priority Strategy, What Is Next For You?

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Do you have a priority strategy? A strategy that helps you decide what to do next? What is most important, urgent, or has the squeakiest wheel?

If you’re on a road trip, and you need a break for rest or for food, you might as well get gas too.

At the grocery store for bread and milk? You might as well buy a snack while you’re at it.

If you’re going to eat the pumpkin or apple pie, you might as well load it up with whipped cream.

It’s commonplace for people to pile on. Pile on whatever is around you, because right now is a time of great convenience or, if you’re falling off a discipline, you might as well splurge.

You also experience it when someone processes LIFO, last in, first out. It’s an act of convenience or proximity.

And finally, it may be the shout of, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by.

Can you do better than that? What’s your strategy?

Priority Strategy

Prioritization that isn’t strategic may be wasteful.

Doing the next thing that pops up might not be as valuable as item number three in the pile.

Largely, it is often too easy, or too lazy, to not be strategic.

It happens in the digital world. Click the website, click the hyperlink, go deeper, dig more. It’s fast, it’s often friendly, and most of all, it’s convenient.

That’s exactly how people get sucked in. It’s how they get distracted and buried in something that might not have the highest priority or be the most valuable right now.

Prioritization should be strategic.

Always.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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workplace action

Workplace Action Is About Questions

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How are things going? How is business, are you busy? At any venue where there is business networking, you may hear these questions. Is your workplace action about questions?

People expect to hear that you are busy. Of course, the often-unspoken question is, “Busy at doing what?”

Questions Drive Action

Whether you are considering individual contributions each day or if you are at the helm of a multimillion-dollar organization, being busy really isn’t the point. While it may represent a polite way to start a conversation, being successful is much more important.

Busy can be an excuse. We hear it when we ask for volunteers, when there are deadlines, or when there is grunge work to be done.

A better question may be, “How is your prioritization going?”

You can sit in a rocking chair and be rocking, you are busy rocking, but you aren’t going anywhere. Doing the most productive things may have more relevance.

Shaping Workplace Action

Communication shapes the mindset of the team. If the question seems to center around being busy then demonstrating busy becomes most important.

You can be busy typing an email, busy walking to visit someone in a different department, or just busy looking busy.

The EHS specialist, the Sales Manager, and the Controller typically aren’t so reactive to busy. They are reactive to a different set of data. The question may be, “How are the numbers?”

Of course, the focus then becomes about the numbers, not busy. “Can you do lunch today?” may be met with, “Not today, I’m crunching the numbers.”

Communication is driving the culture of the organization. From buzzwords to bulletin boards, what is communicated becomes the focus.

Be careful what questions you ask.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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