Setting strategic priorities may help your team create clear long-term goals to achieve over a designated time period. Once you complete the prioritization worksheet process, the strategic priorities should become clear. There are a couple considerations that are important:

• Organizations within an industry may have similar strategic priorities because of industry drivers.
• Strategic priorities for a company can adjust as the internal and external environments in and around it change.
• Know your priority level. Work through the determining strategic priorities worksheet as a team to assign a priority value (3,5,7,9) to each area you are assessing. This will tell you areas of priority for you to focus.
• Next, think about the resources needed and timing to complete it. This can help determine its importance. OR, you may want to quickly focus on low-hanging fruit (the most easily achieved of a set of tasks, measures, goals.

Determine what is urgent vs important. You may also think about how critical of a priority it is. Using the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, which identifies what tasks or goals are “urgent vs. important” can help you to determine which of your highest priorities need the immediate focus.

The ones that fall in the upper left-hand quadrant and are both urgent and important might rise to the top of your list. These represent critical vulnerabilities, which are areas that are crucial for success — but also the ones most vulnerable to risky disparities (implications that are legal, financial, brand, employee well-being). The difference between urgent and important is:

• Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention. These are the to-do’s that shout “Now!” Urgent tasks put us in a reactive mode, one marked by a defensive, negative, hurried, and narrowly-focused mindset.
• Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals. Sometimes important tasks are also urgent, but typically they’re not. When we focus on important activities we operate in a responsive mode, which helps us remain calm, rational, and open to new opportunities.

Limit strategic priorities to a handful. Cap out at five – seven for the entire organization. If you’re looking at all policies, processes, practices and programs, this number reflects a very narrow number. Reducing the number makes it easier for leaders to communicate and employees to understand the what and the why. It helps employees focus on manageable areas and prevents them from becoming overwhelmed. Consider limiting the number of strategic priorities in your strategic plan to an attainable number between one and two objectives in each area, each year. While you may have many priorities competing for critical status, choosing those which best align with company values or long-term goals may help keep the focus on the future.

Resources and timing. Objectives, resources and timing are three variables needed to execute an initiative or complete a goal. These variables depend on each other and adjusting one of them affects the others. Resources have the largest effect on the other two variables. Knowing what resources are available and for how long can help determine the time necessary to complete an aim. Additionally, without resources, you may not have the means to create an actionable plan to meet your objectives. By understanding how these variables relate, you can learn how to best analyze your data to create attainable strategic priorities.

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