Plays are the epitome of CDO School. CDO School Plays are structured steps and actions to help you make meaningful forward progress right now. Each Play combines different skills thoughtfully and intentionally to tackle specific, real-world challenges.
One of the more difficult challenges we face as leaders is trying to prioritize our day-to-day work so that we’re moving forward on the big picture.
The Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid is an essential tool for doing just this. Developed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, it is a simple matrix-like tool that helps you focus simultaneously on eliminating and reducing the activities that aren’t producing the results you need so that you can raise and create the activities that are or will.
What this play will help you do:
Use this play to calculate (and recalculate) your org and team priorities.
When you should run this play:
Run this play quarterly, with special attention around budgeting cycles
1. Prep (15 mins)
- This activity is best for leadership teams, first as functional teams, then in partnership with cross-functional partners
- This activity is best when done quickly, avoiding analysis paralysis
- This activity can be done with a variety of tools. We suggest using Post-its.
2. Identify activities that are being taken for granted (15 mins)
- Create a list of activities that your team is doing (which require time, money, or attention) that other teams take for granted
- e.g., few find value in the work, those activities haven’t resulted in the expected change,
- Challenge yourself to Eliminate those from your backlog
TIP: Rest assured, I’m not suggesting an activity like Research should be eliminated. Rather, think about eliminating arguments you make about research or activities that are not vital to finding research insights.
3. Identify activities that can be below your current standard (15 mins)
- Create a list of activities that your team is doing (which require time, money, or attention) that don’t need to be “world-class” or “done the right way”
- e.g., let the PM make a project logo, reuse the PowerPoint deck rather than change everything to Keynote or Figma, reduce the amount of documentation no one reads
- This is where a bit of pragmatism comes in, especially when thinking about the big picture
- Challenge yourself to Reduce those from your backlog
4. Identify activities that should be above your current standard (15 mins)
- Create a list of activities that your team is doing (which require time, money, or attention) that need to be of a higher quality
- e.g., customer-facing brand identity, critical admin capabilities, work within a critical business unit
- Challenge yourself to Raise the prioritization of these items in your backlog
5. Identify activities that have never existed that should be created (15 mins)
- Create a list of activities that your team has not done (which require time, money, or attention) that should be done for the first time.
- This is where a bit of pragmatism pays off. When you eliminate and reduce the amount of energy you put into things that aren’t a high priority, you create the ability to do new, challenging, and fun things.
- Challenge yourself to Create new items in your backlog
Reflections
Remember, being strategic is as much about not doing things as it is about doing things. So often, we forget that removing or reducing is just as powerful as creating. In my experience, this skill really separates high achievers from the rest.
Here are some reflection questions to ask after running this play:
- How do you feel about deprioritizing work?
- What kinds of conversations will you need to prepare for by doing this activity?
