Greatest-Good Business Triage
Prioritize the actions that preserve the most people and value
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Borrowed from Steve McLeod's emergency-services background, this mental model asks a leader to pursue the greatest good for the greatest number when scarcity makes it impossible to preserve everything. First map the employees, contractors, customers, and essential operations at risk. Then separate external conditions from choices the business can control and compare which available actions preserve the most people, service, and future viability. Prioritize the highest-impact viable action, communicate the trade-offs, and reassess as conditions change. The framework does not make difficult choices painless or automatically settle legal and ethical duties. Its mechanism is narrower: it prevents scarce time and cash from being spread evenly across every demand when doing so could leave the whole business unable to help anyone.
Origin
Extracted from The Foundr Podcast
Core principles
- 01Scarcity may make it impossible to protect every stakeholder equally
- 02Priorities should seek the greatest good for the greatest number
- 03Leaders should act on controllable choices
- 04Effort does not remove the need to acknowledge trade-offs
How to run it
- 1
Map what is at risk
List the employees, contractors, customers, commitments, and critical operations affected by the constraint. Describe the likely consequence for each without minimizing it.
Pro tip Use current evidence and mark important unknowns.
Watch out Do not reduce people to numbers or ignore duties owed to them.
- 2
Separate controllable choices
Remove factors the business cannot change from the decision set. Focus attention on actions the leadership team can take now.
Pro tip Name the owner and decision deadline for each viable action.
Watch out Calling something uncontrollable should not become an excuse to avoid a difficult choice.
- 3
Compare total benefit
Assess which action can preserve the most people, customer value, and operating capacity. Include downstream consequences rather than measuring only immediate savings.
Pro tip Test whether a smaller intervention could protect more of the system.
Watch out Seek professional advice where employment, insolvency, health, or legal duties are involved.
- 4
Act and explain
Choose the highest-impact viable path and communicate what is happening, why it was chosen, and what support is available. Avoid promises the business cannot keep.
Pro tip Explain the decision rule as well as the decision.
Watch out Decisiveness does not justify deception or unnecessary harm.
- 5
Re-triage
Review the decision as cash, demand, capacity, or external constraints change. Move resources when a different action can now create more overall good.
Pro tip Schedule the next review before leaving the current one.
Watch out A crisis priority should not become permanent through inertia.
In the wild
An illustrative firm cannot maintain every low-demand service during a severe revenue drop. It maps the customers who rely on critical delivery, the staff required to support them, and the cash each service consumes. After appropriate professional advice, it concentrates limited capacity on the viable service that protects the most customers and roles, explains what it cannot maintain, and reviews the choice weekly.
→ Scarce capacity is directed toward preserving the largest viable core instead of being spread until every service fails.
Common mistakes
Using triage to dodge obligations
The prioritization rule does not override legal, ethical, employment, or professional duties.
Spreading resources evenly
Equal distribution can be destructive when no recipient receives enough support to remain viable.
Treating one decision as permanent
Triage must be repeated as evidence and constraints change.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for genuine business crises involving painful choices and limited time, cash, or capacity.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for bypassing legal duties, professional advice, or careful consideration of individual harm.
From the transcript
“triage was from my emergency services background and what it means is greatest good for greatest number”
“doing the best you can for as long as you can with as many people as you can that's the only thing you can do”
From the episode
294: Responding to COVID-19: What Entrepreneurs Should Be Doing Right Now