Managing Priorities
How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions
Managing Priorities is your guide to prioritizing anything—anytime and anywhere. Harry Max digs into the best practices for prioritization at Apple, DreamWorks, NASA, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and beyond, and brings them together in a single, practical method that you can apply step by step.
Who Should Read This Book?
Every business person who is even remotely interested in prioritization should read Managing Priorities. Whatever you need to prioritize—tasks, goals, OKRs, projects——this book is for you. Specific chapters are dedicated to what needs to happen and when for individuals, teams, and whole organizations.
Takeaways
- Learn what prioritization is.
- Gain insight into the costs of not prioritizing intentionally.
- Explore different methods of prioritization, including the Eisenhower Matrix, the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the Max Priorities Pyramid, Paired Comparison, Stack Ranking, and more (highlighted in the Appendix).
- Apply the author’s DEGAP® method of prioritization with its five phases: Decide, Engage, Gather, Arrange, Prioritize.
- Identify, understand, and address your current state or lack of prioritization (the context of your problem, the people involved, and the issues surrounding timing).
- Use a scale to differentiate items to prioritize and arrange them appropriately.
- Select an approach to prioritization that works for your specific situation.
Available from Audible and other major audiobook sellers.
Managing Priorities is your guide to prioritizing anything—anytime and anywhere. Harry Max digs into the best practices for prioritization at Apple, DreamWorks, NASA, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and beyond, and brings them together in a single, practical method that you can apply step by step.
Who Should Read This Book?
Every business person who is even remotely interested in prioritization should read Managing Priorities. Whatever you need to prioritize—tasks, goals, OKRs, projects——this book is for you. Specific chapters are dedicated to what needs to happen and when for individuals, teams, and whole organizations.
Takeaways
- Learn what prioritization is.
- Gain insight into the costs of not prioritizing intentionally.
- Explore different methods of prioritization, including the Eisenhower Matrix, the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the Max Priorities Pyramid, Paired Comparison, Stack Ranking, and more (highlighted in the Appendix).
- Apply the author’s DEGAP® method of prioritization with its five phases: Decide, Engage, Gather, Arrange, Prioritize.
- Identify, understand, and address your current state or lack of prioritization (the context of your problem, the people involved, and the issues surrounding timing).
- Use a scale to differentiate items to prioritize and arrange them appropriately.
- Select an approach to prioritization that works for your specific situation.
Available from Audible and other major audiobook sellers.
Testimonials
“People have long known it is important to have clear priorities and then focus on them. But no one ever tells you how to do it. But that’s exactly what Harry Max does in Managing Priorities, where he clearly lays out the steps that anyone can use to be more productive and effective. It’s required reading for anyone wanting to be a better business leader.”
—Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix
“The difference between a life of reacting and a life of purpose comes down to priorities. In this excellent book, Harry Max clearly describes the key elements of prioritization, how it works, and how you can put it to work for yourself, your team, and your organization. Harry Max is one of the smartest people I know. So, I would read any book he chose to write. And lucky for me, lucky for all of us, he chose to write a book about choosing how to choose. Thanks, Harry!”
—Dave Gray, founder, School of the Possible, and co-author of Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
“Managing Priorities by Harry Max is a compelling guide for managers and leaders who find themselves navigating the interconnected complexities of modern business. Max’s exploration into prioritization offers readers valuable insights and skills for applying prioritization across all aspects of professional life and provides practical strategies to apply in their own organizations. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to create a culture of clarity and purpose in their organization, from small teams to large enterprises.”
—Mark Interrante, former SVP Engineering at Dell and Salesforce
“Harry has taken a topic that is important to all business leaders, prioritizing. He has written the most comprehensive book that has ever been written on the topic of prioritizing.”
—Eric Lofholm, CEO, Being Movement International
“Not enough people understand the need for prioritization. This book provides an extremely tactical toolkit to address the challenge of prioritization both on a personal and professional level, providing the frameworks that enable a solid foundation for action. This is a great resource that you will find yourself referencing on a regular basis.”
—Colleene Isaacs, entrepreneur
“Managing Priorities employs a brilliantly simple approach to demystify the ‘how’ of prioritizing, ultimately paving the way for improved decisions and outcomes.”
—Bob Cagle, co-founder/CEO productOps Inc.
“After reading Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions, it became apparent to me that this book should be a mandatory part of all business curricula. The DEGAP strategy is applicable to all levels of management, from small businesses to corporate entities, in establishing their priorities. Priorities can teach managers, directors, supervisors, and CEOs valuable lessons on communicating effectively and properly delegating tasks to employees.”
—Franchette Dyer, CEO of Vetech Business Services, LLC
“Prioritization is one of the most challenging things we do in our personal and professional lives on a daily basis. We implicitly prioritize without truly understanding how, often leaving us with a lack of clarity on how to make trade-off decisions and leading us to avoid the most important tasks. In Managing Priorities, Harry Max provides practical frameworks to show us how to set priorities with intention in a relatable, useful, and entertaining read.”
—Wendy Shepperd, SVP Engineering, SailPoint
“Every time I put Harry’s methods into practice, my teams level up and so do I. Now you can too.”
—Jess McMullin, founder, Objective Lenses
“Prioritization is a team sport. Harry’s DEGAP process is immediately useful. A must-read. Prioritize Managing Priorities!”
—Scott Sehlhorst, President of Tyner Blain, Product Management and Strategy Consultant
“Managing Priorities provides a front row seat to easily learn and apply Harry’s practical and systematic roadmap to achieve major results. Full of brilliant, easy-to-use nuggets, his system enables success in any endeavor.”
—Ward Ashman, Ph.D., founder and inventor, Trimergence
“Prioritization either seems like something that just takes care of itself or is a simple enough matter of following a process. Harry Max has something far deeper and more rigorous to offer. Tools, yes, but, equally if not more important, also a path into a powerful way of thinking about how to decide what matters.”
—Michael Anton Dila, complexity thinker, originator of System 3
“To live a fulfilling life with purpose in both our personal and professional lives, we need to understand the artful execution of prioritizing our priorities. Emphasizing the human aspect of prioritization, Max’s book offers an easy-to-follow process and diverse frameworks for any situation.”
—Ashley Blake, President of Ash & Co. Consulting
“This book is for anyone who has needed to figure out how to get things done, so…everyone. Max goes through, step by step, with vivid stories and examples, how to find the best path to accomplish your goals. Better yet, he also catalogs all the ways to solve this problem making this an indispensable guide to how, when and who decides what to get done.”
—Maryann Kongovi, operations executive
Table of Contents
Part I – Why Prioritize?
Chapter One: The Missing Ingredient
Chapter Two: The Power of Priorities
Part II – Trust the Process
Chapter Three: Deciding to Prioritize Intentionally
Chapter Four: Engage in the Process
Chapter Five: Gather Items to Prioritize
Chapter Six: Arrange Items and Related Information
Chapter Seven: Prioritize Items
PART III – Putting Process into Practice
Chapter Eight: Better Options for Better Outcomes (Episodic Solo Prioritizing)
Chapter Nine: Beyond Getting Things Done (Periodic Solo Prioritizing)
Chapter Ten: Team Priorities
Chapter Eleven: Sustaining Team Success
Chapter Twelve: Setting Priorities at Scale
Chapter Thirteen: Priorities for Annual/Strategic Planning
Conclusion: Or, How to Finally Own Your Timeline
Sample Chapter
This is a sample chapter from Harry Max’s book Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions. 2024, Rosenfeld Media.
Chapter 1: The Missing Ingredient
It was autumn of 2014 in the Northwest, and the first time I’d been to Tacoma, Washington. This wasn’t an obvious hotel for a corporate workshop—not boutique-y at all—more like the “ranch-style, you-could-be-any where” type. The breakfast room had community tables draped with synthetic white tablecloths, so writing a to-do list on them with my Space Pen was out of the question.
Staring back at me through the glass sneeze guard were scrambled eggs, floppy bacon, oily sausages, and partially cooked hash browns. I set the halves of my bagel on the toaster conveyor belt, round-side down. Another day, another hotel breakfast.
I was hopeful that the 21st Century Leadership workshop I was here to attend would be a good change of pace. I’d been sent to Tacoma by Rackspace, the San Antonio–based cloud-computing company where I’d been working as VP of Product & Experience Design for several years. The senior leadership team (SLT) had suggested that this conference, and perhaps some time away from corporate headquarters, could do me some good.