Managers are promoted for competence and then judged on strategic prioritisation and trade-offs, which nobody trained them for. Most failures in prioritisation and trade-offs trace back to a conversation someone avoided having. The version of this part of organisational leadership described in the manual and the version practised on the floor tend to diverge over time. Practitioner evidence points the same way: strategic prioritisation and trade-offs improves fastest where responsibility for it is named and owned. It concentrates on the parts of the organisational leadership capability that determine outcomes and treats the rest proportionately. Each session closes with a decision the participant must justify about prioritisation and trade-offs in their own setting. The course leaves participants able to diagnose weaknesses in strategic prioritisation and trade-offs before they become incidents. Participants come from operational and oversight roles, and both perspectives on prioritisation and trade-offs are used deliberately. The programme closes with an action plan for this strand of organisational leadership that each participant writes for their own organisation.
Expected Learning Outcomes
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Develop successors capable of running strategic prioritisation and trade-offs without you.
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Communicate the reasoning behind prioritisation and trade-offs, not only the conclusion.
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Set standards on strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and apply them consistently regardless of who is involved.
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Diagnose whether a problem in prioritisation and trade-offs is one of design, resourcing or discipline.
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Translate strategic prioritisation and trade-offs into objectives each person can see themselves in.
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Reduce avoidable variation in how prioritisation and trade-offs is carried out across teams.
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Handle the trade-offs in strategic prioritisation and trade-offs between speed, cost and assurance explicitly rather than implicitly.
Who Should Attend
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Consultants coaching leadership teams on strategic prioritisation and trade-offs.
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Members of committees that take decisions affecting prioritisation and trade-offs.
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Executives leading multi-function programmes involving strategic prioritisation and trade-offs.
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Business partners who must understand prioritisation and trade-offs well enough to challenge it.
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High-potential staff being prepared for wider responsibility for strategic prioritisation and trade-offs.
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Project and programme managers whose success depends on prioritisation and trade-offs.
Course Modules
Open any module to see its sessions and topics.
01
Strategic prioritisation and trade-offs: building the bench and letting go
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reviewing strategic prioritisation and trade-offs when nothing has gone wrong
Identify single points of dependency in strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and reduce them.
Agree what will be standardised in prioritisation and trade-offs and what will not.
Identify which function can quietly block strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and address it directly.
Name the person accountable for each part of prioritisation and trade-offs, not the committee.
Session 2Deciding on prioritisation and trade-offs when the information will never be complete
Confirm that the people affected by strategic prioritisation and trade-offs heard it from you first.
Define acceptance criteria for prioritisation and trade-offs in advance.
Set out how exceptions to strategic prioritisation and trade-offs are requested and approved.
Anticipate the objections prioritisation and trade-offs will raise and prepare the answers.
02
Prioritisation and trade-offs: setting direction people can act on
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Testing prioritisation and trade-offs before relying on it
Establish the boundary of strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and record what sits outside it.
Check whether incentives anywhere reward behaviour that undermines prioritisation and trade-offs.
Identify the conversation about strategic prioritisation and trade-offs you have been postponing, and schedule it.
State the outcome expected from prioritisation and trade-offs in a single sentence anyone can repeat.
Session 2What your team concludes from how you handle prioritisation and trade-offs
Identify your successor for strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and the gap they need to close.
Map the handovers in prioritisation and trade-offs between functions and secure them.
Record what was learned when strategic prioritisation and trade-offs did not go as planned.
Rehearse the briefing on prioritisation and trade-offs that would follow an incident.
03
Prioritisation and trade-offs: the conversations that decide the outcome
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1The decisions in prioritisation and trade-offs that cannot be delegated
Agree the standard on strategic prioritisation and trade-offs and confirm it applies to everyone.
Review a past decision on prioritisation and trade-offs and state honestly what you would change.
Estimate the resource strategic prioritisation and trade-offs requires to run as designed.
Reduce the variation in how prioritisation and trade-offs is carried out between teams.
Session 2Saying the thing about strategic prioritisation and trade-offs that nobody wants to say
Define the trigger that would require strategic prioritisation and trade-offs to be redesigned.
Build the internal briefing that explains prioritisation and trade-offs to those affected.
Set the decision rights on strategic prioritisation and trade-offs: who decides, who is consulted, who is told.
Give one piece of specific feedback on prioritisation and trade-offs within the week.
04
Prioritisation and trade-offs: performance, standards and consistency
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Delegating prioritisation and trade-offs without abandoning it
Ask the team what they think is wrong with the plan for strategic prioritisation and trade-offs.
Write down the reasoning behind your position on prioritisation and trade-offs.
Benchmark the organisation's strategic prioritisation and trade-offs against comparable operations.
Decide what you will delegate on prioritisation and trade-offs and what you will not, and say why.
Session 2Moving prioritisation and trade-offs through people who do not report to you
Identify where judgement in strategic prioritisation and trade-offs is legitimate and where it is not.
Test whether the team can explain prioritisation and trade-offs in their own words.
Prepare the summary of strategic prioritisation and trade-offs that senior management will read.
Set the review point at which prioritisation and trade-offs will be reconsidered.
Choose the package that suits you
Silver Package
At least 3 people
USD1,250
Workshop or Program Participation
Airport Transfers
Customized Badge
Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
Supervision & Secretarial Services
Accredited Certificate of Participation
Complete Training Kit
Coffee Break
Closing Ceremony
Gold Package
At least 3 people
USD1,850
5-night stay in a 5-star hotel
Workshop or Program Participation
Airport Transfers
Customized Badge
Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
Supervision & Secretarial Services
Accredited Certificate of Participation
Complete Training Kit
Coffee Break
Closing Ceremony
Complete your registration
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