Author: Mike Urgo
There is nothing worse than being an employee that has two deliverables in the queue, both are said to be “top priorities” with the same due date: NOW.
As leaders, we need to stop putting our hard-working developers, network engineers, analysts, etc. into this situation. I am sure most companies would say they have prioritization or demand type processes. The question is: how effective are they? Are they being followed?
It is my belief that there are four cornerstones to good prioritization in an organization.
Executive Process
As it should with most things in an organization, no matter how big, it should start at the top. Executive leaders need to fully understand their impact on work when requests come through and the benefit to a true prioritization process. The truth is, in most cases, emergencies happen. But there should be a process for them that doesn’t slow down an emergency need and also qualifies what a true emergency is for the company.
If we are talking about a hospital and the patient check-in system goes down, that’s an emergency. However, at that same hospital, if a nursing director decides they need a new reporting dashboard on nurses’ shifts, that should not immediately stop all other requests in flight.
The purpose of bringing executives of the organization into a room to agree on prioritization is to work to curb and avoid the backchannels that begin to usurp progress. It works with them to agree on how requests and emergencies should be weighted and handled. Therefore, when requests are assigned a priority score, the work can be completed in the proper order.
Transparency
In my opinion this is the hardest thing to accomplish. Everything when it comes to demand or prioritization is easier said than done. However, transparency is usually the most difficult. True transparency should remove the backchannel requests that can derail progress or set back projects. It can feel harmless when doing it in the moment and I am just as guilty of it.
Even something as simple as walking over to the helpdesk and asking for them to come look at something quick, can have downstream impacts. I know I am being a bit facetious, but I think it’s an important point. The last title I held in a larger organization was Senior Director. To me, I am not a title guy. I try my best to talk to all people the same regardless of title or status. However, if I remind myself of what it was like when I started as an analyst. Interacting or getting a request from someone two, three, even four levels above me was serious. Especially earlier in my career, before learning it was ok to push back and set expectations.
The key here is to work hard to change the culture and bring all requests into a queue or multiple queues. This way the work being done by employees is done in a way that provides the most value to the company and can be completed rather than having multiple requests in flight constantly with nothing being delivered.
Sizing & Types
This is the next step following executive buy-in. It’s important to design and model what different size and types of requests you shared service gets from the business or clients. As hard as it may be, once this is agreed upon, it makes decisions and prioritization easier, because it removes personal and emotional biases.
The most difficult part of this process is navigating the egos in the room. People are rightfully passionate about their areas and can be defensive or bullish when it comes to making sure their requests are satisfied. The wrong way to implement a prioritization matrix is to downplay or belittle different areas to the business. Rather, it’s important to educate and focus on value. What is it that the business (Executive Team) values? This can also change year to year or quarter to quarter depending on the type of business or focus areas. Which is why this or any process is never a set it and forget it type of model.
Continuous Learning
Changing culture is probably one of the most difficult things to do in any line of work, and technology is no different. The number one key to change is buy-in from executive leadership, which was already covered. The next is to never let anyone forget about it. Initial buy-in is great. It’s also probably the easiest to gain. Continued buy in and change of behavior happens over time with continuous learning and conversations.
It requires a dedicated team of champions who model the desired behavior and tactfully hold all parties accountable regardless of title. This is the most difficult part of prioritization. It’s also why there needs to be an executive emergency path, so that this new initiative doesn’t get immediately typecast as “red tape”.
In the example initially given when it comes to patching a fix to a patient check-in system that has gone down at the hospital, we should not have pushback from SCRUM or Development teams. However, in the second example, there should be an internal leader able to meet with the nursing director, understand their request while educating them on the new prioritization system.
By continually modeling the new policy and holding people accountable, change is possible. The true and most powerful metric is the delivery metric. By helping calm down some of the noise for the resources tasked with delivery, regardless of what they are delivering (services, code, networking equipment, widgets), the volume and velocity of your delivery model will improve.
Do you need help implementing this type of model? Want to know more about how this type of thinking can have a positive impact on your organization?
Schedule a call to see how I can help you or perhaps you are an organization that is a good fit for my next full-time career move.
The ability to take the time to understand your organization, your people, your processes, and translate to technological solutions is what makes Intellectual Nebula so effective!
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