Last week, I sat down with a talented engineering director who was visibly exhausted. "Everything is labeled as high priority," she sighed. "My team is burning out trying to tackle competing emergencies, and the quality of our work is suffering."
Her situation probably sounds familiar. I've seen this pattern play out countless times in my years as a technology executive – teams trapped in an endless cycle of urgent priorities that paradoxically leads to nothing truly being prioritized at all.
Let me break this down and show you how to escape this trap.
The Hidden Cost of Priority Inflation
Here's what most organizations don't realize: When everything becomes high priority, we create a culture where:
- Teams lose their ability to deliver quality work
- Strategic thinking takes a backseat to firefighting
- Top talent starts updating their resumes
- Customer experience inevitably suffers
But here's what really matters: This isn't just a leadership problem. It's an organizational mindset that creeps in when both leaders and team members lose sight of strategic clarity.
Why We Fall Into This Trap
The psychology behind priority inflation is fascinating. Our brains have a limited capacity for processing information and making decisions. When we're constantly switching between "urgent" tasks, we experience:
- Cognitive overload that impairs judgment
- Decision fatigue that leads to poor choices
- Task-switching costs that kill productivity
- Strategic blindness that makes everything seem urgent
Breaking Free: A Two-Way Solution
Getting out of this cycle requires both leaders and team members to step up. Here's what I've seen work:
For Leaders:
- Define clear strategic pillars that guide prioritization.
👉 No more than 4 strategic pillars.
- Create space for deep work by protecting team focus time.
👉 Require 2x 90-Minute timeblocks weekly for strategic planning.
- Regularly review and adjust priorities with your team.
👉 Explain the tradeoffs clearly.
- Accept that some good initiatives need to wait.
👉 This is where you help the teams to succeed.
For Team Members:
- Take ownership of understanding business strategy.
👉 Demonstrate your strategic thinking in regard to the business problem at hand.
- Proactively propose priority frameworks.
👉 Higher quality output will require more time.
👉 Faster outcomes will require more resources.
- Push back constructively on competing priorities.
👉 How do all the priorities connect with each other? Can they be grouped?
- Develop and share your strategic perspective.
👉 When you do not understand how business decisions are made, you will always only do disconnected tasks. Take quality time to plan strategically, and don’t be afraid of showing your strategic thinking in the questions you ask.
A Real-World Example That Works
One of the most effective approaches I've implemented is —what I call— the "Priority Checkpoint System." Here's how it works:
Weekly Priority Review
- 30-minute team meeting. This is not a project meeting—it’s a strategy-alignment meeting. Do the priorities still align with the strategic pillars?
- Each new "urgent" request gets measured against strategic goals.
👉 Rule of Thumb: Is it a new capability? Then it's not urgent. Is it broken? Then [maybe] urgent.
- Team collectively ranks priorities. Use numbers to prioritize and keep emotions out—numbers should not originate from the requestor(s).
- Clear documentation of decisions. How do the numbers compare to each other—to prove the strategic ranking?
Monthly Strategy Alignment
- 60-minute deep dive. Should include the top-ranking executive leader—ideally the CEO.
- Review impact of previous month's priorities
- Adjust course based on learnings. Stay agile! It is o.k. to pivot mid-stream [when it comes directly from the customer].
- Reset priorities if needed. Pro Tip: Keep priorities super small—so the teams can finish each committed priority before reset. This is not required, though.
Quarterly Reset
- Half-day session.
- Zero-based priority review. Remove the ranking and review. Pro-Tip: Use AI and rewrite each priority based on customer and business impact versus technical and functional priority names to prioritize strategic impact and competitive advantage.
- Strategic alignment check
- Fresh start on priority stack. Job well done? Only when you walk away with a new set or priorities.
The Road Ahead
Remember, getting out of priority chaos isn't a one-time fix – it's an ongoing practice. But the payoff is worth it: higher quality work, more engaged teams, and better business outcomes.
