How the dominoes tumble

Often when we develop strategy and business plans, we create priorities and align them with how we are organized. In other words, finance has their priorities, sales has theirs, the P&L s have theirs.

While this is necessary to assign accountability, make sure you recognize that some priorities can't be started until others have been completed; and this dynamic often cuts across organizational lines. For example, until operations addresses quality issues, sales can't sell the product effectivelly.

When you are building your business plan, think about which of your priorities are foundational. In other words, not all priorities can be addressed simultaneously in your organization. Understand the dependencies. And manage accordingly. Understand the dominoes.