Structuring thought
Priority
Stop everything being presented as equally important.
The shape
- Information
- Importance
- Urgency
- Consequence
- Priority
- Communicate
Why that order
A list with no ranking transfers the sorting work to the listener, who has less context than you and will sort it worse.
A worked example
There are five open issues, but only one is critical: the payment failure. The other four do not affect Friday's release.
You have it right when
The listener knows where to put their attention.
What usually goes wrong
Calling three things critical. If everything is critical, nothing has been prioritised and the word stops working.
Used in
Where this shape does its work in a real situation.
Mostly serves Message, and reaches into Intent.
A framework tells you what shape the answer takes. It cannot tell you whether shape is what you are short of, and for most people it is not. Which one is yours, and whether a framework is the right instrument at all, is what a Discovery Call is for.
Take the AssessmentOr read the whole glossary first.