ACTION PRIORITY MATRIX
By Shai Patel
2021-03-22
The Spring equinox has just passed, when the length of day and night are equal. The reality is that we are coming to the end of the first business quarter of the calendar year.
Business goals and targets (see last article, "SMART Goal Setting for Business") have been established and hopefully tracked.
For some, it is good news; they are on target or even ahead. For some, it is slightly disappointing news – some of the goals have been missed and need to be re-planned, discarded or re-scoped. Some may have lost the practice of tracking progress against goals, resulting in a vague idea of how the business is faring.
One of the critical skills of goal setting, planning or seeking opportunities is Prioritisation. This article looks at choosing what goals or activities need to pursue to deliver the highest yields. We cannot forget or dismiss other goals but look at how they can be prioritised and completed.
There are many Prioritisation techniques that people use. One of those is known as the Action Priority Matrix.
This technique enables you to prioritise activities to make the most of your time, energy, and talents. Where we have multiple goals or even client projects, can use the Matrix to choose activities intelligently, we can spend more of our time on the high-value activities that keep us moving forwards. We can also delegate or outsource tasks that contribute little.
USING THE ACTION PRIORITY MATRIX
To use the Matrix, you score tasks based on their IMPACT and on the EFFORT needed to complete them.
You then use your scores to plot these activities in one of four quadrants:
Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort)
Quick wins are sometimes the most attractive projects. They potentially give a good return for relatively little effort. For an arborist, these are attractive, and clients' neighbours, or a practice that sends repeat business, are often a good source of such projects.
Major Projects (High Impact, High Effort)
Major projects give good returns but can be time or resource consuming. Such projects can blanket 'quick win' projects but can yield profits or further large projects. For arborists, these could be large private contracts or those on behalf of local authorities, or the client who is happy to pay a premium for services but expects a high level of support.
Fill Ins (Low Impact, Low Effort)
These are the 'odd jobs' that can creep up for the arborist. Execute these in between major projects and quick wins if you have spare time. Alternatively, if you have alliances, delegate or sub-contract the work out to peers who may see these as Quick Wins for them. This can include the arborist working on trees subject to TPOs who needs to obtain consent to prune, and outsources this task to a local consultant.
Thankless Tasks (Low Impact, High Effort)
These are often ones that businesses avoid – but at the cost of reputation. Sometimes these jobs are time-consuming and may not give little in return. For some business owners, these can be jobs to outsource to peers or niche specialists.
Whilst the above is a guide, be mindful of how you prioritise your client work and how the client community and your competitors perceive this.
When considering IMPACT, score these from, say, 0 for no impact to 10 for maximum impact. For EFFORT score from, say, 0 for no real effort to 10 for a significant effort.
Plot the Action Priority Matrix activities based on your scores, prioritising appropriately, and outsourcing or delegating low impact activities.
The Matrix applies to 'internal' decision making too. You may consider that managing your receipts and invoices are thankless activities yielding little return and therefore opt to outsource these activities to a bookkeeper.
Alternatively, you may consider writing or submitting a bid for a large project as a Major Project and prioritise this above some client work.
SUMMARY
The Action Priority Matrix is a simple tool that helps you choose which activities to prioritise and which activities to delegate, outsource or even eliminate.
The Matrix has four quadrants:
- Quick wins.
- Major projects.
- Fill ins.
- Thankless tasks.
To use the Matrix, make a list of your ongoing activities and goals. Score each task on IMPACT and EFFORT, using a 0 to 10 scale. Next, plot your activities on the Matrix, and then prioritise, delegate, or eliminate activities appropriately.
Use common sense to interpret the lines that separate the quadrants. For example, maybe only a tiny difference between a 4.9-impact activity defined as a "thankless task" and a 5.1-impact task defined as a "major project."
Shai Patel
ICON ~ Business Growth Professionals
0800 567 7440
Business Planning | Business Management |Grants and Finance | Telecoms Services | Energy Services | Merchant Services | Business Support for Startups, SMEs, Social Enterprise and Charities
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