On paper the priority is clear; in practice, whatever's urgent today wins.
Recognize this situation? Below are the Liberating Structures that change it — a concrete example, and the reason this one fits here. New to Liberating Structures? Here's what it is.
Critical Uncertainties builds a strategy that holds up even as today's urgency shifts.
For example: The annual plan clearly states which project is priority number one. In practice, attention shifts every week to whatever happens to be burning hardest — the official priority project rarely gets a full, uninterrupted day of attention.
Liberating Structures for this situation:
15% Solutions
15% Solutions doesn't ask "what's the big priority," but "what can I do today, with what I already have, for that project" — a step that doesn't wait for today's urgency to clear.
Because that step is small and directly doable, it survives daily distraction better than an annual-plan priority that only works if a full, uninterrupted day gets freed up for it.
Critical Uncertainties
Critical Uncertainties instead builds a strategy that accounts for today's urgency itself: the group names the two most unpredictable factors in their environment and works out a scenario and matching strategy for each combination.
A priority that only holds up in one predictable scenario is exactly what keeps failing here. A priority that holds up across multiple scenarios survives daily urgency better, because it already accounted for it.
No certification, no lengthy prep — read the steps and try it at your next meeting.
Keep exploring
Browse the full list of 43 structures, or get support if this situation is too complex to facilitate yourself.