If you are an entrepreneur, it’s vital for you to learn how to identify the priorities of your business. Here, we’ll show you scenarios and solutions to do so.

Imagine that there are two locations of the same fast food burger franchise with “provide excellent customer service” and “manage expenses” as their organizational core values.

Scenario 1:

Each location A & B, have different owners

Owner A prioritizes “provide excellent customer service”

Owner B prioritizes “manage expenses”

One would expect to have completely different stakeholder experiences depending on the location one visits

To be successful, each owner has to adapt the existing [if there are any] set of policies, processes, and procedures to meet the needs of its prioritized core value.

This is not a question of right or wrong but for a fast food franchise, consistency matters.

Scenario 2:

Now let’s say that there’s only one location with manager A, who prioritizes “provide excellent customer service”, works one 12 hour shift and manager B, prioritizes manage expenses, works the other 12 hour shift

In the scenario we will begin to see the challenges with consistency within a single 24 hour period.

Scenario 3:

Now there are four 8 hour shifts and four managers

Manager A [prioritizes provide excellent customer service],

Manager B [prioritizes manage expenses],

Manager C [prioritizes both core values], and

Manager D [prioritizes neither of the core values]

Think about this as it relates to consistency.

Scenario 3 is how many of our entrepreneurships are run. This helps us begin to understand why certain teams within the same organization or even the same department can function so differently.

Leadership creates core values, or they don’t, and fail to communicate the rational or their priority, leaving frontline leaders to figure out how to meet whatever “success metrics” have been outlined. Overtime inconsistency leads to chaos and is often left unidentified because if “what to prioritize” is left to the individual, they will often fallback on what makes them most comfortable, which is often not communicated.

Solution:

1. Leadership identifies and communicates priorities
2. Leadership frequently communicates priorities
3. Leadership sets overall indicators of success based on priorities
4. Managers translate indicators of success into metrics for their domain based on frequently communicated priorities
5. Managers create ways to measure metrics based on frequently communicated priorities
6. Managers measure metrics based on frequently communicated priorities
7. Managers share with leadership the results of measures based on frequently communicated priorities
8. Leadership evaluates measures to determine if managers efforts to manage and measure appropriately met the identified indicators of success based on frequently communicated priorities
9. Leadership communicates in detail whether manager’s efforts were successful or not, based on frequently communicated priorities
10. Managers use feedback to improve metrics for success for their domain based on frequently communicated priorities
11. Repeat steps 5–10

Do you see a pattern?

Not only must core values be developed, they must also be prioritized, and that prioritization must be frequently communicated and evaluated to ensure that all stakeholders are having the expected, not only a profitable business, but consistent experiences across the entire ecosystem of the business.