HBR Guide to Project Management

Setting Priorities Before Starting Your Project

by Ron Ashkenas

In a rush to demonstrate initiative and take action, new project managers often launch activities without first getting a sense of which ones are the most critical and what the sequence should be. As a result, they unwittingly slow things down.

Take this example: Plant managers at a global manufacturing company kept getting peppered with unnecessary, often redundant, data requests from corporate headquarters. To reduce this burden, the head of manufacturing asked a senior engineer to lead a project team to streamline data sharing. Upon receiving the assignment, the engineer enthusiastically (1) fired off an e-mail requesting that all heads of corporate functions nominate team members ...