Linking Actions and Decisions to Strategies and Priorities

When you log Actions or make Decisions in JOD, you connect them to your organization's strategies and priorities. This connection creates visibility—showing which strategies are activating through real work, not just which ones exist in your plan.

The Default Approach: Link to a Specific Priority

Whenever possible, link to a strategy-priority pair. This gives you the most specific view of which work is activating which parts of your strategy.

You have two options:

Strategy-priority pair (preferred)

Example: "BUILD grassroots power → Develop community leadership cohort"

Strategy alone (fallback)

Example: "BUILD grassroots power"

Start by asking: "Which priority is MOST activated by this work?"

When to Use Strategy-Priority Pair

Use a strategy-priority pair when one priority is more activated than the others.

Example:

Action: "Facilitate 6-week organizing training for 15 community leaders"

Priority: "Develop community leadership cohort"

Yes, this training might also build campaign capacity or strengthen relationships—but the primary activation is the leadership cohort. That's the priority being most directly advanced.

When to Use Strategy Alone

Link to a strategy alone when two or more priorities are equally activated or when no specific priority is clearly the focus.

Two or more priorities equally activated

The work advances multiple priorities with no clear primary focus.

Example: "Facilitate community listening session to identify new leaders and gather input on policy priorities"

This equally activates both your leadership development priority AND your policy advocacy priority. Rather than forcing a choice, strategy alone captures what's happening.

No specific priority is the focus

The work serves the strategy broadly without concentrating on any particular priority.

Example: "Host all-staff retreat to revisit our organizing approach"

This touches multiple priorities—leadership development, campaign planning, community engagement—but no single priority is more activated than the others.

When You Can't Decide: Check If the Action Is Too Broad

If you're struggling to choose, the Action might be written too vaguely.

Too-broad Actions are hard to link because they don't describe specific work.

❌ Too broad: "Work on organizing"

✅ Specific: "Facilitate 6-week organizing training for 15 community leaders"

The specific version makes the priority connection obvious.

The Guiding Principle

Link to the priority that is most activated by the work.

• If one priority is clearly more activated than others → Link to that priority
• If two or more priorities are equally activated → Link to strategy alone
• If no specific priority stands out → Link to strategy alone

The goal isn't perfection—it's accuracy about where your work is creating the most impact.

When to Stop and Reassess

If you can't identify which priority is most activated, that's a signal:

• Two or more are equally activated → Strategy alone is the right choice
• The Action is too vague → Rewrite it with more specificity
• Your priorities need clearer boundaries → Talk to your Sponsor

What This Creates

When you connect Actions and Decisions to the priorities most activated by your work:

You create visibility – Leadership sees which strategies and priorities are activating through real work

You maintain alignment – Teams see how daily work connects to organizational purpose

You build learning – Patterns emerge showing what's working and what needs adjustment

Related Articles

→ Understanding Actions - What Actions are and when to capture them

→ Understanding Decisions - What Decisions are and when to capture them

Updated on: 05/01/2026