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      • Priority to Progress
      • Check
      • Snapshot
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      • Strategic Briefing
  • Home
  • About
  • Approach
  • Insights
  • Work with Us
    • Priority to Progress
    • Check
    • Snapshot
    • Operating Review
    • Strategic Briefing

Choose your priority

Start with one important piece of shared work

Perhaps an initiative is taking longer than expected, a partnership depends too heavily on your team, or people support a goal but disagree about what happens next.


Priority-to-Progress begins with one specific piece of work. Use this guide to choose your priority and identify the decision you’d like help with.


You don’t need to know what’s causing the difficulty or which service to choose before contacting us.

What makes a suitable priority?

Choose an initiative, partnership, implementation challenge, or upcoming decision that:

  • Matters to your mission.
  • Depends on people working together, within or beyond your organization.
  • Is specific enough to examine.
  • Has a decision or next step that clearer understanding would help you make.

The work may already be underway, or you may want to examine readiness before making a commitment.

Six steps to choosing your priority

1. Identify two or three candidates

1. Identify two or three candidates

1. Identify two or three candidates

What important work needs attention over the next three to six months? Look for repeated difficulties or an approaching decision.

2. Choose what matters most now

1. Identify two or three candidates

1. Identify two or three candidates

What is at stake? What happens if nothing changes? Choose the priority where better understanding would most help you make your next major decision.

3. Describe what you’re observing

1. Identify two or three candidates

4. Identify whose involvement matters

Give one or two concrete examples. “Three partners missed important deadlines” is more useful than “Our partners aren’t committed.” 

You don’t need to diagnose the cause.

4. Identify whose involvement matters

4. Identify whose involvement matters

4. Identify whose involvement matters

Who makes decisions, provides resources, implements the work, or experiences its effects? 

Include people whose cooperation matters even if you cannot direct them.

5. Name the decision

4. Identify whose involvement matters

6. Check scope and readiness

What would the inquiry help you decide? You might clarify responsibilities, redistribute work, change participation, or consider whether to proceed.

If you have a solution in mind, identify the question behind it. “We need a steering committee” becomes “How should these partners make decisions?”

6. Check scope and readiness

4. Identify whose involvement matters

6. Check scope and readiness

Can you focus on one initiative, partnership, or phase? Is there a sponsor who can support the inquiry and act on findings? What evidence, perspectives, resources, or constraints should we understand?

MAKE YOUR CONCERN SPECIFIC

Better Collaboration

Stronger Partnerships

Stronger Partnerships

"How can we collaborate better?

Becomes:

“Several teams are working toward the same goal, but their plans and timelines don’t align. We need to decide how to coordinate the next phase.”


Stronger Partnerships

Stronger Partnerships

Stronger Partnerships

"Why aren't our partners pulling their weight?"

Becomes:

“Our team completes most of the partnership’s agreed work. What should change before we renew?”

Meaningful Community Participation

Meaningful Community Participation

Meaningful Community Participation

"Why did the community not respond well to our initiative?"

Becomes:

 “We’re redesigning a program. How might community input more effectively influence our decisions?”

Learning that Informs Decisions

Meaningful Community Participation

Meaningful Community Participation

"Why don't partners use the data we collect?"

Becomes:

“We collect feedback and progress reports, but they rarely affect what we do next. We need to decide how findings will better inform our next round of planning.”

write your priority statement

Use these four prompts:

  1. We need to: Describe the specific result or piece of work.
  2. Progress depends on: Identify the relevant people or institutions.
  3. We’re observing or need to understand: Describe the difficulty or readiness question.
  4. We need to decide: Name the next choice or change.

A few sentences are enough. 

Use this statement in your Priority Brief.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

No. It can involve teams within one institution. What matters is that progress depends on people with different responsibilities, authority, or resources.

Yes. You may want to examine readiness before implementation. Explain what has been decided and what remains uncertain.

Start with the one where better understanding would most affect your next decision. Note the connections in your Priority Brief.

Describe what you’ve observed and tried. You don’t need a diagnosis, but you should be open to findings that suggest a different response.

Tell us what is available and what the sponsor can change. Those limits help determine scope and how confidently findings can be interpreted. Don’t upload internal records with your initial brief.

Describe it directly. Stronger coordination cannot replace missing resources or resolve binding restrictions. Another kind of support, a narrower inquiry, or a pause may be appropriate.

READY TO DESCRIBE YOUR PRIORITY?

Tell us what matters, what you’re observing, and what you need to decide. Submitting a Priority Brief does not commit you to an engagement.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PRIORITY

Prefer to begin on your own?

Get your free Priority to Progress Check

GET MY FREE CHECK

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