It occurred to me across many meetings over the past few weeks that the word critical was being used with reckless abandon. 5 minute tasks that didn’t need to really be done were being called critical simply because someone wanted to make sure they were completed.
“Critical” is an important word that should be reserved for only tasks that are actually of core importance to the business. If you over-classify the work that needs to get done you lose the ability to differentiate between the truly important and the everyday. Human nature is to work on items from most important to least but if everything is important then invariably non-critical tasks will be completed before the ones that can make a real impact.
The words we use are important. Clear communication is the foundation of success.