“Too Many Priorities, Too Little Progress”: Tackling the #1 Change Challenge

Across APQC’s change management research, one barrier surfaces more consistently than any other: conflicting priorities. It outranks communication gaps, resistance to change, and even resourcing challenges. For many organizations, the central problem is an environment where too many initiatives compete for the same people, time, and attention.

Organizations struggle not because strategy is unclear, but because alignment, sequencing, and capacity checks break down as change initiatives accumulate. Top performers address this challenge by treating focus as a managed system, using tactics such as portfolio governance, readiness-based decisions, and adaptive planning to balance priorities and tackle change in a sustainable manner.