What priorities are your resources revealing?

Last time, I wrote about handoffs using an example from my teaching experience.

Even when people understand their responsibilities, work can break down as it moves between them. Most of us use technology to reduce the break down. Think 1) shared documents, 2) emails, and 3) meetings to communicate instructions and management.

This raises another question or reveals something else that is important: What resources are available to make the work happen?

I go a step further and think about what we are choosing to do with the technology or resources at our disposal. This time, I’m using my personal goals as an example.

Actions speak louder than words is a cliche I hear in my Jamaican community; especially when I was young. I’ve been thinking about the question “What are we choosing to do with the resources?” in my own life.

Over the years, I've accumulated experiences as a teacher, academic advisor, researcher, writer, and business owner.

Being a researcher has strengthened my ability to enter complicated environments, understand their structures, identify important relationships, organize knowledge, and make reasoned judgments. These are valuable skills.

But valuable for what?

I could use them to become a better consultant. I could create more courses. I could produce research, workshops, books, and educational resources. I could build an advising business. All of those are possibilities.

I’ve been realizing that my larger objective isn’t necessarily to sell more of my expertise. I want to build a life in where my income becomes less dependent on my personal labour. And its a bit more than financial independence or financial freedom. This goal of mine helps me feel like I can design my life.

This changes how I think about resources. The more refined insight is resources reveal priorities.

Organizations regularly announce their priorities. Innovation. Student success. Employee development. Customer experience. Growth.

But priorities become more visible when we examine how resources are used.

An organization might say employee development matters while giving employees no time to practice new skills.

A university might emphasize student success while making essential support difficult to access.

A business might say growth matters while spending most of its resources maintaining activities that no longer produce results.

The stated priority and the operating priority are not always the same. Resources reveal what a system is actually organized to support.

I’ve spent years developing my ability to produce knowledge. I can investigate, explain, teach, advise, and design. But those skills have mostly generated income when I’m personally doing the work.

I teach a class. I advise a student. I deliver a workshop. I write something.

I find the work meaningful and financially valuable. And the income remains closely connected to my time. If my objective is greater independence from personal labour, I may need to allocate some of my resources differently.

That might mean using money to acquire an income-producing asset rather than purchasing another tool.

It might mean using my existing equipment to test a rental service rather than letting it sit unused.

It might mean building a repeatable educational service that someone else can eventually deliver.

Or it might mean investing in systems that allow knowledge I've already produced to remain useful without requiring me to explain it again.

None of these possibilities guarantees success.

But they force me to distinguish between activities that produce income today and investments that might produce income without my continuous involvement tomorrow.

Every resource has alternative uses.

An hour spent creating a newsletter is an hour I cannot spend interviewing a potential customer.

Money spent on advertising cannot simultaneously purchase equipment.

Time spent designing a new course cannot also be spent improving an existing service.

I don’t see the question as being if an activity is valuable (many activities are valuable). The question seems to me: With the goals I have set for myself, is this the best use of the resources available to me?

That question requires more thought, time, and research I think. It requires making judgements about trade-offs, uncertainty, timing, and what I’m willing to stop doing.

I'm beginning to think about resource allocation through four questions.

1. What outcome am I trying to produce?

Not just what activity am I trying to complete, but what should be different afterward?

2. What resources do I already have?

Time, money, equipment, relationships, experience, knowledge, access, and capabilities.

3. Which resources are currently committed to activities that don't advance that outcome?

This isn't necessarily waste. Some commitments serve family, health, community, or other purposes that matter independently of income.

But I need to understand the trade-offs.

4. What small reallocation could test a better possibility?

I don't need to reorganize my entire life or business immediately. I can commit a limited amount of time or money to one experiment and examine what happens.

Think about one outcome you say is important. It could involve your family, career, education, organization, or business.

Now examine how you spent your time, money, and attention over the past week.

Ask yourself: If someone knew nothing about my intentions and could only observe how I allocated my resources, what would they conclude my priorities were?

Then ask: What is one resource I could redirect toward the outcome I actually want?

That question is becoming increasingly important to me. Because leveraging experience isn't simply about recognizing what I've learned.

It's about deciding where the skills and resources I've accumulated should go next.

And sometimes the most consequential decision isn't what new knowledge to acquire. It's what to do with what I already have.

Next time, I'll explore another part of making work happen: Giving Someone Work Isn't Delegation.

— Greg Campbell
Leverage your experience.