Mastering Prioritization in Decision-Making

The key to a life well-lived is prioritization, but people rarely explain how to do it effectively.  

In Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions (Rosenfeld Media, 2024), Harry Max provides a useful guide. 

He explains how learning to prioritize is helpful in life as well as at work. He explains how he - and his clients - feel a sense of freedom, as though a weight is lifted, when it's clear what is most important and they are able to focus on those things. In this relatable approach, Max acknowledges that avoidance behavior is natural, and clarifies the need to understand the costs of not prioritizing intentionally.

Drawing on methods used at Apple, DreamWorks, NASA, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and beyond, Harry Max presents a practical method that you can apply either for single large decisions or for ongoing efforts. 

In the book he introduces the "daily boot", a way to start the day by clearing out the fog of competing efforts, and his DEGAP® method: Decide, Engage, Gather, Arrange, Prioritize. 

Max demystifies common prioritization frameworks by providing guidance on how and when to use them, either together or separately. These include the Eisenhower Matrix, the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Paired Comparison, and Stack Ranking among others. 

Mentioned resources:

• The New How by Nilofer Merchant
• The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists by Richard P. Rumelt
• The Kano model by Noriaki Kano. It's not a prioritization framework per se, but a valuable resource for understanding what is important as it relates to customer satisfaction. 

Author recommended reading:

• Wiring the Winning Organization by Gene Kim and Steven J. Spear
• Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Hosted by Meghan Cochran

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