Priorities

We are working to really focus on priorities in the ministry right now, so this little section from the book Know-How seems very appropriate:

“Priorities are the pathway for accomplishing goals. They provide the road map that organizes and directs the [organization] toward its goals. When the priorities are unmistakably clear and specific, people know what to focus on and, therefore, what should get their attention, resources, and follow-through. The right priorities, combined with appropriate follow-through, keep the truly important things from being driven off the radar screen in the day-to-day hurly-burly of life at work where everything can seem urgent and important. The right priorities help you rise above the constant demands that create stress and confusion. They enable you to provide clarity and focus for yourself and other people in your organization. Without priorities people are apt to try to do everything, wasting precious time and energy on things that aren’t important.

Goals are set at fifty-thousand feet. Priorities are set at ground level where you must have the tenacity, attitude, and willingness to probe the messy details to think through and define what the most important actions should be and what their second- and third-order consequences will be. Priorities determine how resources are allocated and thus have the potential for touching off clashes as resources are moved from one person to another. While the priorities must be absolutely clear, very specific, and, above all, doable, that isn’t enough. Once set, you must repeat the priorities over and over again and follow through on them to be sure that people understand them, buy into them, and act on them so the organization executes them and doesn’t deviate from the course the priorities set.”