"At the core, strategy is about focus, and most complex organizations don't focus their resources. Instead, they pursue multiple goals at once, not concentrating enough resources to achieve a breakthrough in any of them."
- Richard Rumlet from Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Establishing a priority should result in a trade-off. Trade-offs happen when getting more of one good thing means you get less of another. Due to this, businesses tend to ignore tradeoffs because it limits their ability to pursue their vision all at once. This is a costly mistake.
It comes down to making a choice. Evaluate the field of 'good things' and establish strategic preferences wrapped in specific timeframes.
Introducing the Even Over Statement
These strategy statements deliberately pin one thing over the other.
Examples of Even Over Statements:
Sustainability even over Profitability
Optimize for learning even over optimize for impact
Existing user retention even over Initial signup retention
Profit margin even over revenue growth
Public channels even over Private channels
Even Over Statements should be front and center while making critical decisions. Proper statements strategically align with the overall department and/or company strategy. In addition, these statements don't need to be enduring, they can flip over time.
As an example, here is my Even Over Statements for "Nuffshoptalk":
Consistency even over Polish
LinkedIn network even over Twitter network
Improve my writing even over Grow my subscribers
Want to put together your even-over statements?
List out your purpose, values, mission, strategy, projects, objectives (anything you have)
Brainstorm positive outcomes, traits, and goals aligned with the above
For all the positives, get specific and honest about the tradeoff likely required
Fill in the blanks: BLANK even over BLANK
Vote and rank
Share with the company
Here are more fantastic resources on how to use even-over statements:
https://focus.parabol.co/strategic-prioritization-using-even-over-statements-fb63e78e7b4d
https://medium.com/@samspurlin/a-nifty-tool-for-making-priority-mean-something-again-14e3fff376fb
https://academy.nobl.io/how-to-write-a-strategy-your-team-will-remember/