Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a company leader comes into the room and floats an idea with such conviction that everyone drops what they’re doing to solve this problem immediately. Then, later, it turns out that it was just a cool idea. There’s no value in it whatsoever.
I recently started a new role, and that’s the first thing I observed. People worked on what was right in front of them, rather than working on the right thing. When a Product person suggests an idea, the team swarms on it. When the VP of Engineering has an idea, the team swarms on it. When an alert goes off, the team swarms on it.
One of my reports asked me, “What’s the big deal? We’re getting things done.”
I find that analogies are helpful when describing concepts that, for whatever reason, we struggle to see in the moment. And so I gave him a scenario to consider, and I’ll share it with you:
You take your daughter to the playground for an hour before it’s time for dinner and then her bedtime. She’s swinging on the swing, happy as can be, when you get a phone call. It’s your neighbor. “Hey,” he says, “can you help me move a couch? I’ll buy you pizza.”
You say, “I can help you in an hour.”
Why didn’t you yank your kid out of the swing and throw her in the car and blow past all the stop signs on the way home? There’s pizza involved, for God’s sake!
Because, of course, the time with your daughter is more important than helping your neighbor move a couch. The couch will still be there in an hour, the pizza will be there in an hour and a half. It’s not urgent. It’s not worth interrupting quality time with your daughter.
But imagine your neighbor calls and says, “Your wife just tripped over the hose in the yard and hit her head and seems disoriented. I’m driving her to the urgent care.”
You bet your ass you’d throw your kid in the car and blow past all the stop signs. You’ve got a wife who needs your help! That’s more important!
Yet, somehow, when we work in corporate environments, this simple decision making, this straightforward aspect of prioritization seems to escape us. We fight the fires right in front of us, we tackle the tickets that come our way, we chase after the shiny thing. It takes discipline and wisdom to stop and ask ourselves: is this the right thing for me to be working on?
Because the chances are the shiny thing, the thing that just crossed your desk, the loudest voice in the room? They aren’t that urgent. They can wait til tomorrow. They can wait til next week.
Finish the playground trip with your daughter. Finish the project you were working on first. The rest can wait.