This document introduces a tool called the "Bubble Chart" for prioritizing projects and initiatives. It discusses how the Bubble Chart allows projects to be evaluated based on three key dimensions: importance, difficulty of implementation, and resources/time required. Projects are plotted as bubbles on the chart based on how they score in each dimension. This helps identify high priority projects that are both important and easy to implement with limited resources. The document provides guidance on how to use the Bubble Chart to systematically rate and prioritize initiatives.

1. Prioritising Initiatives Tool
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2. Intent of session
This exercise will:
• Provide you with a common and consistent tool for prioritising
projects and initiatives
• Expose the likely difficulty and resource required to implement,
allowing appropriate management decisions
• Understand alternative methods of prioritisation

3. Why prioritise initiatives?
• To maximise your return on investment – time and money
• Limited time and resource means that as leaders you have to choose the
most impactful initiatives
• The amount of change that individuals comfortably take on at any time is
limited – therefore executing the highest priorities first ensures maximising
results
Allows a group of people to come to a common consensus reasonably
quickly and expose this in a format that can be shared

4. Prioritisation Tool options
Tool Benefit Downside Usage guide
Bubble chart Exposes three dimensions
for better decision making
Takes some time
Needs a good
comprehension to work
Site / Group level
strategies
Importance element of
Bubble chart
Use multiple criteria and
weighting to
systematically rate level of
importance
Takes some time
Criteria need to be correct
for it to work properly
Site / Area / Line level
strategies
A, B, C, then rank Quick and simple Goes on gut feel and
sometimes difficult to get
group consensus
Area / Line / Machine
level strategies
NB - Lots more choices out there too

5. Focus on Bubble chart prioritisation
Three dimensions
• What is the perceived level of importance for each
project/initiative relating to delivery of vision/strategy
• To ensure success it is important to pick relevant criteria
Importance
• What is the perceived level of difficult y to implement this
project
• Consider how much change is involved, recent success/failure
of similar projects, how ready people are for change (culture)
Difficulty
• What is the perceived level of resource / energy and time
required to deliver this project / initiative
• Consider specialists required and specific levels of
management
Time/Resource

6. Prioritise your initiatives/projects
Top priority
-Important
-Easy
High priority
-Important
-Hard
Distractions?
-Least important
-Easy
Lowest priority
-Least important
-Hard
-How much labour/resource you will need to
implement change
More Important
MoreDifficult
Sweep through chart to order initiatives
Size of bubble

7. Data to Create a Priority Chart
List initiatives &
projects here (max
20)
Choose a set of importance
criteria (should link to
strategy delivery /
achievement of vision)
Choose a set of difficulty
criteria (what will
contribute to making this
difficult)
List the resources (people)
that will be involved with
delivery – use levels
Utilise the weighting
across all criteria to reflect
relative importance in
each dimension
Score 0-3 for each
initiative under each
criteria. Focus on
Importance for all
initiatives first
Resources required could be
done using 0-3 or typical hours
per month or week involved in
each initiative
Tip: Just use the importance
area for a quick prioritisation
tool

8. Using the outcome of the bubble chart
• Importance
– Highest priority should be considered for immediate implementation
– A champion that will definitely get a result would be good for these projects at an
appropriate level
– Tracking should be thorough and regular
• Difficulty
– Difficult projects should be put under appropriate management
– Close control and tracking
– Communication is key in difficult projects – aim to over communicate
• Resource / time
– For major projects, with impact across multiple layers it maybe worth considering a
steering committee and a specific project charter that is tracked separately and
included in the site scorecard
– Small energy/effort projects may be quick wins and could be prioritise

9. Using to help build a Milestone plan
• When building your Milestone plan, do so with reference
to your bubble chart – answering the following questions:
– Should we start all initiatives now, how could it best be phased?
– Have we assigned an appropriate champion?
– What is the review process/methodology?
– Who is involved with the reviews?
– Do we need some kind of tracking mechanism (scorecard)?