Having too many
initiatives is a common problem in our workplaces. Leaders pile “critical” work
onto everybody’s to-do list and stress levels increase. Cracks start to appear
in the fabric of our teams as the pressure mounts.
When there are
too many priorities on which to realistically focus our effort, the feeling of
progress we create is an illusion. Almost every organization I have worked for
is trying to do too much, with too little.
Perry Keenan of
BCG talks about the ‘increasingly artificial split– between running the
business and changing the business’. (You can watch the four minute video here)
He talks about
the issues with too many initiatives, saying ‘Arguably, it is in fact easier to
add an initiative than it is to stop one because there’s a lot of connection –
political, emotional, historic– a set of factors which means it’s not easy to
stop initiatives. It’s often not easy even to slow them down.’ He goes on
to advise, ‘If you’re going to add in new initiatives, then be very thoughtful
about what it means for the initiatives that you already have in play and the
demands that you’re placing on your people. Once again, we all too often, in
theory, assume that there is an infinite pool of highly capable people
available to deliver the strategic initiatives. It’s a finite resource. And
therefore, it has to be managed in a very definitive way.’
When we have
too many priorities, we agree to take on too much work. The obvious
consequences at an individual level include stress, feelings of overwhelm, with
the potential for burnout. All of these lead to potential issues with health,
wellbeing and disengaged teams.
At a cultural
level, there are consequences too. Organizations and the teams within them
start to build a culture of failure. People joke about failing projects and
expect delays. Teams keep working to the deadline they know is impossible,
until someone tells them to stop.
One thing to
keep in mind when it comes to priorities is that nothing is important, when
everything is at the top of the list.
If everything
is a top priority, you actually don’t have any priorities and you’ll struggle
to focus your effort.
The essence of
strategy is choosing what not to do and the essence of execution is truly not
doing it. That may sound simple, but most organizations struggle to kill
initiatives, even those that no longer support their strategy.
A Harvard
Business Review article, Too Many
Projects, Hollister
and Watkins talk about how to deal with initiative overload. It opens saying
‘it’s surprisingly hard for organizations to kill existing initiatives, even
when they don’t align with new strategies. Instead, leaders keep layering on
initiatives, which can lead to severe overload at levels below the executive
team.’ The article cites six further reasons for why this change overload
occurs
- Impact blindness: executive
teams can be oblivious to the number and cumulative impact of the
initiatives they have in progress.
- Multiplier effects: leaders have a
line of sight into their own groups’ initiatives but a limited view of
other groups’ activities. Because functions and units often set their
priorities and launch initiatives in isolation, they may not understand
the impact on neighboring functions and units
- Political logrolling: Executives
tend to be strongly invested in some “signature” projects and may garner resources
for them through implicit agreements to support their peers with their
projects
- Unfunded mandates. Leaders want a
project to happen but don’t have the resources to put to it. Instead just
adding it to the ‘business as usual work’.
- Band-Aid initiatives; this is a
proliferation of initiatives designed to solve a problem, but without
address the root causes of the problem in the first place
- Cost myopia; leaders fail to
estimate, or underestimate the human cost of multiple initiatives on
performance, motivation, morale, stress and so on.
If you want to
tackle the problem of project overload, Hollister and Watkins advise taking
these six steps:
1) Start
counting. Calculate the number of initiatives active across your organization.
2) Assess each initiative.
Why is it needed? What is the required budget? How many people are required to
ensure its success? What impact does it have on the company as a whole?
3) Encourage
communication. Senior leaders must work together to establish priorities in a
way that works for every department individually and for the company as a
whole. They should also ask for and take on board feedback from below, in order
to efficiently assess what projects should stay and what projects should go.
4) Put in place
a “sunset clause”. When a new initiative is launched, specify an end date for
funding. If the initiative is not having a significant positive impact on the
business when that date arrives, it can then be easily killed off.
5) Make regular
assessments. Just because an initiative is necessary this year doesn’t mean it
will be necessary in 12 months’ time. Make sure each initiative is required to
reapply for funding on a regular basis, demonstrating its ongoing value to the
business.
6) Spread a
positive message. Make it clear that killing off an initiative doesn’t mean it
was a failure. Explain there is a limit to the number of initiatives the
company can run at any one time.
LEARN TO SAY NO
If your company
is suffering from project overload, you have to focus on the benefits of
cutting back – and learn to say no.
Leaders must
say no to compelling opportunities so that we can say yes to others. Saying yes
to everything means we lack strategic focus, just as saying no to everything
suggests we lack creativity and a willingness to take a risk. Strategic leaders
use no to create the business of the future.
Necessity is
the mother of invention. When we must, we will. Through the seemingly limitless
potential of human ingenuity, we continue to make “the impossible, possible.”
From a man on the moon to the unprecedented speed of discovery and development
of a vaccine in response to a worldwide pandemic.
Strategic
leaders create… and find a way.
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