Introduction:
To Prioritize means to select, from a longer list, those items that are more important, more desirable, or more worthy of our attention than others. In other words, we turn a long list into a short list.
Used for
Whenever we want to turn a long list into a short list of the best item. We use it when we want to eliminate ideas that are not appropriate, or not effective Typically, we use it to follow a brainstorming session In the brainstorming session, we create an unedited long list, and in the prioritization session which often follows, we eliminate the in appropriate items, and sift out those that are the best.
Input/ Output
We start with a long list. It can be any list. For example, it could be a list of ideas, as in the learning system, or a list of nuggets, as in the mining information competency. Of course, it should be written.
We end up with a handful, or maybe just one, item which appears to be the best choice.
How to
We create some criteria, turn each of them into a question, and then apply those questions to the long list. This allows us to assess each item and select those that rise to the top. In so doing, we turn the long list into a short list.
1. Create criteria
In the Menta-Morphosis system, a criterion is a guideline applied to a larger list to classify each item or rate them on a scale. So, the first step is to formulate some criteria. For example, in the Learning System algorithm, we have created these four criteria that we use to prioritize the top one or two items from a longer list of good ideas: Our higher priority idea should be:
* Quick to implement,
* Bring a quick result,
* Be something we are passionate about.
* Be relatively easy to implement.
So, we create some criteria by which to judge the long list and prioritize that list into a short list – one to five items. We just ask, “On what basis should we examine these?” “Or “How would we describe the features of our highest priority items?”
Then, answer that with no more than five items, like the example immediately above. When we are confident in them, we’ve completed this step.
2. Translate them into questions
It is a simple matter then to turn the criteria into a question.
From our example, above, it looks like this:
Criteria: Question_______________
Should be quick to implement. Which of these will be the quickest to implement?
It should bring quick results. Which of these will is most likely to bring the quickest result?
It should be something we are Which of these am I most passionate about?
passionate about.
It should be simple to implement. Which of these will be the easiest to implement?
3. Finally, we ask the question of each item on the long list.
We look at each item in our long list and ask each of the prioritization questions of it. We can use several tools to do that. We can, for example, create a 1 – 10 scale, and rate each item on that scale by simply re-wording the question. So, for example, the question, “Which of these will be the easiest to implement?” becomes, “To what degree will this be easy to implement? The answer is a rating on a 1 – 10 scale. Apply that process to every item on the long list and then simply identify the three to five items with the highest score.
Or we can use a vote, if we are working with a group. “How many people believe this item should remain? And this one? Etc.”. Continue until you are left with three to five items.
Or we can use a question which calls on us to identify one item on the list, as in the questions from our Learning System.
Variations
There are times when it is more appropriate to organize the long list into classifications, rather than just a short list. “For example, in our “Prioritizing your accounts” algorithm, we have the salespeople classify their long list of accounts into three categories:
A = the highest potential 20% of the long list,
B = the next highest potential 30% of their long list, and
C = the lowest potential 50 percent of the long list.
The process is the same: We create some criteria, we translate those criteria into questions, and then we ask the questions of every item on the long list. Instead of eliminating some of the items, we use their relative scores to classify them into one of the three categories.
The starting point for this competency is a long list, and the output is either a very short list, or the long list arranged into classifications.
