Every week we spend ten to fifteen minutes of our sixty-minute IDS block just debating which issues are the most important to prioritize, leaving us exhausted before we even start solving. How do we streamline our prioritization process?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Spending a quarter of your problem-solving block just choosing what to talk about is a massive waste of energy. The goal of prioritizing is to identify the top three most critical issues that will have the biggest impact on the business today, not to build a perfect, fully ordered list of thirty items.

To fix this, the facilitator must drive a rapid nomination process. Do not go line by line through the entire list. Instead, ask the team to scan the list silently for sixty seconds. Then, the facilitator should ask for nominations for the number-one, number-two, and number-three slots.

- The first person nominates an issue.
- If the team agrees, it becomes number one.
- Repeat the process for number two and number three.

If there is a brief disagreement, the Integrator makes the final call on the top three priorities. Do not allow debates about why an issue should be number two instead of number three. Once you have your top three, dive straight into identifying, discussing, and solving the first issue. You do not worry about number four through thirty until the first three are completely solved. This keeps the energy high and ensures you spend your time solving problems rather than sorting them.