---
id: "action-reduce-priority-whiplash"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Insider Insights: There's Too Much Work", "¶ 5"]
tags: ["leadership", "project-management"]
related: ["concept-change-induced-burnout", "quote-urgent-priorities", "action-slow-down-guidance"]
action: "Limit abrupt shifts in management direction and allow employees to complete tasks before changing priorities."
outcome: "Improves efficiency, output quality, and employee morale by providing continuity in work."
speakers: ["HBR Insider Insights Survey Respondent"]
sources: ["tail1"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail1"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tail-104-treat-ai-like-teammate"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/should-you-treat-ai-like-a-teammate"
sourceTitle: "Should You Treat AI Like a Teammate?"
---
# Reduce Priority Whiplash

## Action
Limit abrupt shifts in management direction and allow employees to complete tasks before changing priorities.

## Detail
Audit how often management changes direction on active initiatives. Give employees the runway to fully develop and complete tasks before shifting them to completely different priorities. **Stop communicating every new task as 'urgent'** — see the respondent testimony in [[quote-urgent-priorities]].

## Expected outcome
Improves efficiency, output quality, and employee morale by providing continuity in work.

## Why it works
Attacks the 'friction of constant change' mechanism at the center of [[concept-change-induced-burnout]]. Complements [[action-slow-down-guidance]]. Enrichment note: this maps to countering **'change fatigue' / 'initiative overload'** — the documented driver of disengagement from too many overlapping, poorly-communicated changes.