27. Everything Can't Be Priority One
Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why prioritizing everything means prioritizing nothing, what keeps teams from letting go, and how to make space for the work that actually matters.
At Work with The Ready · Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin
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Show Notes
We talk a lot about doing less to get more—but in practice, most organizations end up doing the opposite. When priorities pile up, and nothing gets removed or finished, the result is a familiar kind of chaos: too many projects, too little focus, and an endless loop of adding more in hopes of getting unstuck.
This week, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin unpack one of the most common organizational dynamics they see: the “more-is-more” trap of priority overload. They dig into why deprioritizing anything at work feels so psychologically and politically fraught, how identity and sunk costs keep teams clinging to low-impact efforts, and ways for leadership teams to prioritize at a org wide level, not just assemble a laundry list of everyone’s pet projects.
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Mentioned references:
- "60% of Americans"
- Depthfinding
- John Cutler's prioritization article
- WSJF (weighted-shortest-job-first)
- GTD: Brave New Work Ep. 39 with David Allen
00:00 Intro + Check-In: What’s a molehill you’re willing to defend until the end?
03:52 The Pattern: We prioritize everything and nothing gets done
06:01 John Cutler’s 4 Jobs of Prioritization
10:08 Why it’s so hard to stop doing lower value things
18:35 Difference altitudes of priorities
22:23 Where leaders mess up prioritization
25:11 Continuous steering version of priorities
33:05 Idea 1: Use a variant of WSJF for your own variables
37:21 Idea 2: Shift from saying “no” to “not right now”
39:27 Idea 3: Visualize your work to “see” deprioritization
41:26 Idea 4: Openly talk about conflicting priorities
44:00 Wrap up: Share the show with your coworkers!
Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.