Work Strengths Test Question 90 – Reprioritising an overcommitted portfolio

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Read the scenario, then choose the one action you would be most likely to take and the one action you would be least likely to take.

Test part: Part 3: Most and least likely
Level: Grade 7 / Grade 6
Strength pair: Organiser / Strategic
Practice focus: Organiser
Difficulty: Hard

Scenario

Your portfolio contains six projects, but available specialist capacity can support only four properly over the next quarter. Every director describes their project as urgent. Two projects meet fixed legal commitments, one enables savings elsewhere and the remaining three improve services but have flexible dates. Teams are already dividing people across too many tasks.

Choose the actions

Select one Most likely action and one Least likely action. Do not rank the two remaining actions.

Action A

Spread specialist capacity evenly across all six projects so that every director sees progress.

Your selection:
Most likelyLeast likely

Action B

Allow every project to start and rely on individual teams to manage the resulting pressure.

Your selection:
Most likelyLeast likely

Action C

Ask each director to reduce their requested resource by the same percentage before you build the plan.

Your selection:
Most likelyLeast likely

Action D

Compare outcomes, obligations, dependencies and capacity, then propose a sequenced portfolio with explicit trade-offs for directors to decide.

Your selection:
Most likelyLeast likely

Click to reveal the answer
  • Most likely: Action D
  • Least likely: Action B

Members can unlock the full explanation for all four actions below, including why the strongest and weakest choices fit and how the two middle options compare.

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