Tougher financial times mean it's even more difficult for most organizations to secure the resources they need to accomplish the items on their wish lists. Consequently, it's more important than ever for boards and executives to establish clear priorities and effectively evaluate ideas when they attempt to take on ambitious projects.

In the September Center Voices column in Trustee magazine, Susanna Krentz and Cathy Sullivan Clark of the Noblis Center for Health Innovation provide strategies for picking the right projects and staying on track while pursuing your objectives. Specifically, they offer five tips to help boards and executives tackle these challenges:  

1. Avoid Sprinkling. Don't spread resources thinly across several projects. It's better to defer some investments to ensure that a few ideas are funded well enough to succeed.
   
   
2. Establish Good Evaluation Criteria. Set a few meaningful evaluation criteria upfront to help distinguish among alternatives. A criterion such as "mission impact" may be too broad to help leadership determine which projects should rise to the top of the list.
   
   
3. Ask Why. One of the most important roles a board has is to ask probing questions. In making resource allocation decisions, boards need to ask why a particular idea or project is important. Following the path suggested by answers to a series of "why" questions can help uncover ideas that truly merit application of resources today versus those that might be accomplished by other means.
   
   
4. Identify the Critical Path. Some projects should move to the top of the resource allocation list because they must be implemented first to enable execution of other priorities. Ordering projects in this way clarifies the critical path an organization must follow to successfully achieve its goals.
   
   
5. Consider Intangibles. While projects should be prioritized based on clear evaluation criteria and their ultimate impact on the organization, successful implementation often depends on assessing other factors. These include the project's relative risk compared with other initiatives that might be implemented, the track record of the team proposing the project or whether there is a project champion available who can help lead the effort and overcome obstacles.

For more information, be sure to look for the complete article in the September issue of Trustee magazine. Center members can access the article beginning September 1 via the Center's Web site.

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