The Prioritisation Crisis - CXO Edition

Portfolio survival game · 30 minutes · One team, one cut line, no "Priority 1" inflation · 5 Main steps.

30:00

1) Your mission

We cannot prioritize everything! Your executive committee has imposed a 40% portfolio cut by quarter-end.

Move every programme to one outcome: Survive Now, Sequence Next, Pause, or Stop. The portfolio re-priorization is successful only if it protects the non-negotiables and frees real capacity >= 40%.

3) Play in three moves

ACTION 1 · 5 minProtect the mandated work

ACTION 2 · 10 minMake the cuts and trade-offs

ACTION 3 · 8 minName the avoided decision

4a) Portfolio Program cards

Drag cards into a specific decision zone. Debate on tangible evidence, not sponsors.

4b) The portfolio board

Deliver nowFund laterHoldExit

Survive now

Fund, staff and protect

Sequence next

Valuable, but not this quarter

Pause

Keep the option; remove capacity

Stop

Exit; redeploy people and funds

4c) Reality check

Programmes stopped0 / 10

Portfolio cut0%

Protected capacity0%

Start by choosing what genuinely cannot wait. A "survive" decision needs a reason.

2) Decision rules

Use five lenses:

1) Strategic fit
2) Value
3) Risk exposure
4) Delivery capacity
5) Dependencies

Agree criteria before judging individual cards; weighted scoring is a useful discipline, but it informs rather than replaces executive judgement.

5) Which is the decision that is being avoided?

At your table, complete this as a team before the timer expires:

"The decision our organisation is avoiding is ________. We will unlock progress by ________."

Decision locked. Take a screenshot or print this board for the room-wide debrief.

This board-game was initially generated with Perplexity AI and refined by human re-coding