Where do you start when attempting to make significant changes in your life? Or when facing the maelstrom of our VUCA world with pending decisions that need to be made, how do you identify the most important factors that need to be considered? Or once you’ve identified multiple important factors, how do you further prioritize among them? This points to the real question underneath it all – what do I need to be doing today to achieve the desired outcomes of tomorrow?

 Your resources of time, money, and energy are limited. But your list of important priorities is long. Figuring out where to start is a crucial decision, one that shouldn’t just be blindly guessed. Many arguments, both internally within our minds and externally in discussion with others, get bogged down when arguing matters of importance. The confusion and disagreement persist and increase when we are pushed to rate things in order of importance, especially when it comes to allocating limited resources and the choices seem binary. I’d suggest beginning with a further examination of the word important to separate out the Fundamental from the Significant.

 By Fundamental I am referring to the basic building blocks of a situation, the first principles or otherwise necessary components that support everything else. Atoms are fundamental to chemistry. Playing cards are fundamental to poker. These are the key ingredients, and without them you don’t get anywhere. Remove the fundamentals and everything built above them disappears. They are usually fairly concrete, rational, and non-negotiable. Clearly, they are important,but identifying them is only half the battle when we want to “build the new.”

 Significant, in direct contrast, is usually viewed in terms of goals or outcomes and often phrased as the entire point of the plan. Significance often shows up in priority lists as what we decide to achieve and towards which other resources are marshalled. Significance is often emotionally driven, extremely variable, and subject to change and modification. Significance is the “now what?” that decides whether a block of marble will be carved into a sculpture or be sliced into countertops. The Significance is obviously important too, but in an entirely different way. We need to be equally clear on this factor as we are the Fundamentals in order to proceed in our change aspirations.

 Important often hides or confuses these two things. For example, imagine you’re running a strategy meeting to discuss your small business’ budget for next year. One faction is pushing hard to invest in some cost saving measures in production, arguing that cost control is the most important factor in profitability. Another faction is pushing for investing more in improving the product’s features, arguing that customer experience is the most important factor in profitability. Both factions have accurately stated the importance of their idea’s impact on profitability, but have gotten mired in the swamp of relative importance.

 Fortunately, you can see the bigger picture and chime in. “Hey folks. Both teams are right. We can’t be profitable if our costs get out of control and we can’t be profitable if our customer isn’t happy. The costs are Fundamental. Bad cost management will kill us regardless of how happy the customer may be. And happy customers are Significant in that keeping our costs inline won’t mean anything if we don’t have happy customers once the product gets to market. Let’s get out of this false polarity of arguing either/or and team up to find both/and solutions that address the Fundamental cost concerns and Significant customer experience concerns.

 Parsing out these Fundamentals from the Significant in the beginning provides more clarity on your situation and choices in front of you, an important first step. Clarity refines the conversation which helps get your Significant intentions in alignment with the Fundamental facts in play. Getting them to work together harmoniously is what’s truly important.