Priority Inflation Index

How many number-one priorities can a company have before none of them are priorities?

Not scientific. It does not score strategy quality. It shows how well an organization chooses, removes and protects priorities.

12 questions · ~2 minutes

Do you have priorities — or just a list of important things?

Answer for the work that actually happens, not the official roadmap. The first option means priorities are limited and protected. The last means everything is important at once.

01 How many genuine number-one priorities does the company have at the same time?

02 What happens when a new urgent priority appears?

03 How protected is already agreed work from new requests?

04 When leadership says “this is a priority,” is it clear what will be traded away?

05 Who can change the order of the top priorities?

06 How easy is it for an employee to name the company's top three priorities?

07 How often does the top-priority list materially change?

08 Can a team say “not now” to a new important request?

09 When two important initiatives conflict, who decides which one stops?

10 How many independent sources of “most important” does a normal team receive?

11 How often does an unfinished initiative lose priority before producing a result?

12 If a priority is agreed today, how likely is the team to work on it calmly for one week?

What this measures

A priority is not what matters. It is what wins the trade-off

A company can have many important things. A real priority only exists when the organization is willing to delay something else.

If new “number-one priorities” keep appearing without old ones being removed, teams receive competing signals rather than direction.