High Payback
It is common to prioritize strategic goals and objectives in terms of a payback metric such as return on investment.
Quick Win
Objectives that can be achieved quickly are often preferred to things that take more time.
Critical
In some cases, an objective has little or no short term payback but is necessary to the long term sustainability of your mission. Another way to state this is that some objectives have little short term payback but very high long term payback because they allow you to survive into the future. Objectives that are required for sustaining your organization can be described as "critical."
Scoring & Ranking
It is also possible to create a detailed scoring of priorities. This is useful if things are close such that you require detail to differentiate between a set of objectives. It should be noted that prioritization is typically performed by a single person with accountability for outcomes. This avoids the political inefficiencies of group decisions such as the abilene paradox.
Reasons to Depriortize
The following are common reasons not to prioritize a goal or objective.Cost Prohibitive | Flawed Strategy |
High Risk of Failure | Improper Timing |
Low Payback | Low Urgency |
Politically Infeasible | Resistance to Change |
Technically Infeasible | Unfulfilled Dependencies |
Goals vs Objectives
A goal is a broad business result that you target in future. An objective is a meaningful step towards a goal.Goal | Objectives | |
Example | Improve sales by 22%. | Introduce new menu items.Run promotional campaigns.Maintain high customer satisfaction.Open a new location. |
Strategy vs Plan
A strategy is a future target. A plan is a structured series of actions and objectives that realize a strategy.Strategy | Plan | |
Example | Open a new location. | Research locations.Purchase or lease location.Obtain business permit.Construct location.Furnish location.Staff location.Operationalize location.Promote location.Open location. |
Where to Prioritize
Priorities are typically set at every level of strategic planning including prioritization of the goals of strategy and objectives of plans.| Overview: Strategic Priorities | ||
Type | ||
Definition | A ranking of strategic goals or objectives. | |
Related Concepts | ||
