One of the most critical challenges software CTOs face today is what Michael Campbell, CEO of Fusion Risk Management,
calls the “tyranny of the sweet opportunity.” Organizations are surrounded by an abundance
of exciting, seemingly mission-critical technical initiatives, yet lack the resource capacity to execute them all.
This creates a persistent lack of focus, where too many priorities compete for attention, leading to
organizational spin and a dilution of effort rather than meaningful progress.
The Solution: Ruthless Prioritization
To address this problem, Campbell employs a high-intensity leadership exercise designed to force alignment and drive
radical focus across the organization. The approach includes several key components:
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Physical Visual Mapping
The entire leadership team comes together to physically map every project and task on a wall using Post-it notes.
In one instance, Campbell’s team surfaced 650 separate items—many of them initiatives
they felt guilty for not pursuing. -
The Power of “No”
Once the team confronts the true scope of competing demands, leadership is required to narrow the list to just
three to five top-tier priorities. These become the only initiatives allowed to move forward—
specifically those that will meaningfully drive revenue growth or mitigate the organization’s most significant
risks. -
Eliminating “Shadow” Work
The process intentionally eliminates the “under-the-cover-of-darkness” syndrome, where team members
continue working on low-impact or pet projects simply because no one explicitly told them to stop. By publicly
agreeing on what the organization will not do, the CTO ensures scarce resources are concentrated on the
highest-value work and executed with excellence.
This approach transforms the engineering organization from a reactive function into a strategic execution engine—
one that understands that “smooth is fast” only when there is absolute clarity about the
destination.
Analogy
Campbell compares prioritization to triage in a crisis situation. You cannot save every patient at once, and attempting
to do so risks losing even the most salvageable ones. By identifying the three most critical “wounds” to
the business and deliberately ignoring hundreds of minor scrapes, you give the patient—the company—the best
chance not just to survive, but to grow.
