Three is a magic number.
If you are over 45, you may be humming the schoolhouse rock song right now. I know I am.
There is magic in the number three. My former CEO at TNT used to say, "no more than three ingredients on your pizza, or it will fall in your lap." He was the king of focus and prioritization and expertly made tough choices to focus our team.
How can you and your team figure out the top three growth drivers for your business?
You may need a reset after the events of late. One of my favorite tools for getting back on track with a team is the Impact / Effort matrix. I first learned about this from Sunni Brown’s book Gamestorming through our partnership during my time at Time Warner.
Impact versus Effort
I recently came across this fun fact: Did you know that our brains process visual inputs 60,000 times faster than words and text? To see the entire breadth of your work in one place, try the Impact Effort Matrix. It captures everything in one compelling visual that illustrates which projects will yield the highest return for your effort.
If you lead a team, this is a powerful group exercise that lets you pull the camera back and see the whole picture. The tool is deceptively simple. I’ve had teams get into a lively debate about what “impact” means and what “effort” means. You need to define these terms as a group because words matter. The actual value is in debating what goes on each post-it and where it sits on the grid.
Why use Impact / Effort?
To force understanding and conversation. Looking at all the work in a simple, single visual is an eye-opener. Team members can see their project in the context of the broader body of work. It can be humbling.
To be 'rough, rapid and right.' A group can synthesize a vast array of complex projects in 30 minutes or less (now I’m thinking about pizza again).
To choose. To make decisions about where to invest and where to divest.
How it works
Jump on a virtual whiteboard like Miro or grab some post-it’s and a sharpie and draw the image below.
I can feel your eyes rolling now. Yes, I love post-its and sharpies. But bear with me on this one.
Pick a period. I've used this tool to prioritize everything from a six-month list to new product opportunities that will play out over the years. Agree with your timeline. 6 months or five years; it's your call.
On a side whiteboard, spend 5 minutes each quietly capturing all of your work (projects or initiatives). Together, group the opportunities, like with like, and give the grouping a name.
Place the grouping name on the Impact / Effort matrix. Pro tip: For an even bigger visual pop, size the buckets by making a bubble sized to the project's value.
Choosing to grow.
Now for the reckoning.
Pick your bottom three. Look at what falls into the bottom left box. Agree to stop three things to make space for higher impact work. I chose to remove three first for a good reason.
Pick your top three. They don't all have to be upper-right opportunities. Maybe you choose one that is hard and high impact because it drives future growth. What to say 'no' to or stop doing. This is huge. Teams can only expand their work by divesting the low-yield work. Full stop.
From the Field: Long term new product category map
Here’s one that I built for a consumer fashion brand. We ended up liking the layout, adding actual numbers sizing the opportunity, and formalizing this in PowerPoint.
This visual snapshot addressed:
The relative attractiveness of initiatives or projects – how they stacked up against each other
The yield expected from the project (size of the bubble).
The role that high yield, longer-term (challenging) projects have in the portfolio.
This tool can spark some challenging conversations but illuminates three things:
What is all on your list of projects? As a boss, I regularly said, "oh yeah, I forgot about that. Seeing all of the work in one place.
What effort do all of these things take? Boss's POV may differ widely from the line manager.
How much impact do they have? What is the real payoff of this action? Long-term or short-term.
How was it?
Try this out alone or with a team. How did it go? What worked and what didn’t?
What tools do you use to prioritize and get your arms around all of your team’s work?
I’d love to hear from you.
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