Jun 23, 2021
Prioritisation
How to organise an organisation
It became part of our daily business that there are most tasks to do than time is available.
What about the new campaign? Is our marketing up-to-date? Should we have our ads set up locally, regionally, nationally, internationally? Talking, discussing, negotiating with clients while creating and sending out proposals and closing deals is even more time-consuming. All these aspects only show a small number of tasks which an organisation faces daily. No matter how innovative your organisational structure is, no matter how many departments you have or how much staff you hire, we must face the fact that we need a new approach to prioritisation.
How can your organisation stay in the lead?
Clarity
The vast amount of wrong prioritisation happens due to an unclear structure of which tasks belong and why this is the case. Many departments try to mind their own business. However, they showed a high amount of silo thinking, meaning: what is not in your department is none of your business. Missing out on the bigger picture and how their work connects to the organisation’s mission, they prioritise the wrong tasks due to a lack of communication between different parts of the organisation.
If you try to get your prioritisation well-organised, be sure to sit down with all departments, their staff, and their leaders, talk about their issues, ideas, and suggestions before moving on to putting a new structure in place. But, again, management commitment is a must. No matter how experienced, no leader will be able to get this setup done on a drawing board.
Limits
Leaders must choose a situative approach to leadership when it comes to prioritisation. People are fully aware that many leaders work long hours and longer hours than many other people. Still, please respect that not everyone prioritises work and career in their life on the same high level as you do.
There is no One Size Fits All leadership solution (sorry, when you just purchased the “12 Steps To Be An Amazing Leader” motivational-inspirational Chumbawamba book — discard it with all its n=1 and anectodal pseudo-evidence — thank you).
Every person has the right to set their limits when it comes to working. Do not assume that everyone in the organisation has the same attitude towards work as you do. Offering Work-life balance is an integral part of today’s employer branding. Be aware that any limit, any line you cross, will haunt you forever when you try to make the organisation a better one. People will consider you as pushy, ignorant and for sure will not walk the often-quoted “extra mile”.
Facts
The most critical aspects of prioritisation that works will be that leaders accept that facts do not change without action. Let us assume that, according to calculated working times, specific steps in a project need 5,000 working hours. Still, only 2,500 working hours are available by your staff. Now, you have to accept that the project will not be finished in time unless you hire people, get external people, or both (alternatively, you can change the project goal). Of course, pushing people to work longer, creating overtime hours, and a potentially high rate of employee turnover or sick leave is an option as well if you think you should do that.
However, all these actions are based on facts. Stay away from thinking that phrases like “we believe in you”, “it must work”, or “we support you wherever we can” (while refusing to hire people, e.g.) help anyone. The times of leadership based on motivational talks is over.
You cannot ignore facts, proof and evidence. As soon as people realise that you address issues based on facts instead of feelings, they will know that they can address problems, too. Driving your organisations towards a fact-driven, cross-departmental approach is the first step to help you become an organisation that prioritises its actions better than it ever did before.
More about focus for your organisation
in this week’s podcast: click here to listen and learn.
Focus, leadership and more are essential aspects for you and your organisation?
Let’s talk: NB@NB-Networks.com.
