Career · FORTUNE
Fortune #22
Mixed — reflect carefully
When several tasks are all called urgent, the person doing them should not carry the priority decision alone. Show the trade-offs to the decision-maker.
QUOTE CARD
A quote for you
“การสรรหาคนให้เหมาะสมกับงานนั้นสำคัญกว่าการวางแผนกลยุทธ์มาก”
— แจ็ก เวลช์
อดีตประธานและประธานเจ้าหน้าที่บริหาร General Electric
- Person
- Jack Welch
- Source work
- Ch. 24.
- Source text
- Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy.
STORY & REFLECTION
Three urgent tasks at once
Guidance-based illustration · Three urgent tasks at once
Illustrative scene: Two managers request deliverables for the same afternoon. The employee switches between them, and neither piece becomes ready.
They explain that A can finish this afternoon and B tomorrow, or the order can reverse if a client needs B first. Once the managers agree, the work moves without hiding the cost.
Atlassian's prioritization play asks teams to agree on order and name work that can wait or stop. A new request should be considered alongside existing commitments.
Naming a trade-off is not refusing work. It asks that “urgent” have an actual order.
Reflection
Priorities should be agreed, not guessed.
A small action today
Offer a ranked plan to the decision-maker.
A question to reflect on
If you do one task first, what moves back and who is affected?