A Better Way to Set Strategic Priorities That Actually Drive Results

A Better Way to Set Strategic Priorities and Align Teams
To understand a better way to set strategic priorities, leadership teams must first recognize a fundamental truth revealed repeatedly in leadership simulation assessment data: strategy is ultimately about:

• Choices
  Making difficult strategic choices about which big bets matter most.
  
• Resource allocation
  Intelligently stretching limited resources to make those big bets succeed.
  

Effective strategy requires leaders to make difficult decisions about which initiatives matter most and then allocate limited resources in ways that maximize the likelihood of success. Not all markets, customers, investments, stakeholders, programs, or initiatives create equal value. High-performing cultures understand this distinction and act on it with discipline.

The strongest leadership teams align around which strategic initiatives deserve the greatest:

• Focus.
• Investment.
• Organizational attention over time.

We call this strategic decision making — a critical leadership capability for driving sustained business performance.

Why Strategic Prioritization Is So Difficult
Prioritization sounds simple in theory but becomes far more difficult in practice. It requires leaders to:

• Clearly define what matters most.
• Align around shared objectives.
• Commit resources accordingly.

Just as importantly, it requires leaders to stop doing initiatives that may feel important but no longer support the highest strategic value.

The Three Most Common Leadership Prioritization Challenges
Our change management simulation data highlights three common challenges that prevent organizations from prioritizing effectively.

1. Trying to Do Too Much
   The most common challenge is attempting to pursue too many initiatives at once. While urgency and action orientation are valuable leadership traits, most organizations can realistically execute only two or three major enterprise-wide initiatives simultaneously without sacrificing quality, speed, or focus.

   When everything becomes a priority, nothing truly receives the attention required to succeed. Resources become fragmented, teams become overwhelmed, and execution quality declines.

   High functioning leadership teams resist this trap. They invest the time and energy necessary to identify the critical few initiatives that will create the greatest business impact.

2. Operating in Functional Silos
   Research from Accenture found that 93% of executives believe functional silos hinder organizational growth. When leaders focus primarily on optimizing their own department rather than advancing enterprise-wide success, prioritization becomes nearly impossible.

   Silos create competing agendas, duplicate efforts, conflicting investments, and organizational friction. As a result, leadership teams struggle to make difficult trade-offs or align resources around shared strategic priorities.

   The highest-performing teams intentionally break down silos to create greater transparency, collaboration, and enterprise alignment around what matters most.

3. Waiting for Perfect Data
   Strategic decisions rarely come with complete certainty. Yet many leadership teams delay action while searching for additional data, analysis, or validation. While informed decision making is essential, perfectionism can become a hidden form of organizational decision-making paralysis.

   Successful leaders recognize that waiting for complete information often creates greater risk than moving forward with reasonable confidence. They align around the critical data required to make sound decisions and then act decisively.

A Better Way to Set Strategic Priorities

Many organizations attempt to prioritize initiatives during annual strategic planning leadership retreats. Some even identify twenty or more “top priorities.” But organizations with too many priorities often struggle with execution because strategic focus, resources, and accountability become diluted.

A more effective approach is to organize strategic initiatives into three distinct categories: Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Running the Business. In some cases, leaders may also identify a fourth category — initiatives that belong “on the shelf” until timing and capacity improve.

1. Define Strategic Big Rocks: The Critical Few
   Strategic Big Rocks are the two or three initiatives with the greatest potential impact on long-term success. Together, these priorities should account for the majority of the organization’s strategic value creation and receive the highest levels of leadership attention, investment, and organizational support.

   These initiatives should appear prominently on strategic dashboards, be reviewed consistently, and connect directly to performance management, succession planning, workforce planning, and compensation systems.

   If executed successfully, Strategic Big Rocks should meaningfully accelerate growth, profitability, innovation, customer loyalty, or competitive advantage.

2. Define Pebbles: Important but Secondary
   Pebbles represent valuable initiatives that support the business but do not carry the same strategic weight as the Big Rocks. While they deserve dedicated attention and resources, their timelines and scope may need to adjust based on the evolving demands of higher-priority initiatives.

   Simply put, Pebbles should never compromise the success of the Strategic Big Rocks.

3. Outline Running the Business: What It Takes
   Leadership teams often underestimate the operational work required to maintain business stability while pursuing strategic change. Organizations cannot successfully execute transformational initiatives if critical operational systems are failing.

   HR cannot focus exclusively on executive recruiting if payroll accuracy or compliance issues remain unresolved. Sales leaders cannot launch new solutions if compensation plans are misaligned. CEOs cannot focus on acquisitions if core operational performance is deteriorating.

   Maintaining operational excellence is not optional. It is foundational.

The Bottom Line
When employees clearly understand how their work connects to enterprise priorities, execution improves, collaboration strengthens, and strategic momentum accelerates. The most successful organizations consistently protect the Strategic Big Rocks, maintain operational stability, and pursue secondary initiatives only when sufficient capacity exists to execute them well.

To learn more about a better way to set strategic priorities, download 3 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Cascading Your Corporate Strategy

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.