Name the human challenge
Executives must compare different opportunities with imperfect information and accept that valuable ideas may need to wait. Personal ownership, optimism, and reluctance to relinquish control can all make that discipline difficult.
Use structure to protect focus
Agree on enterprise priorities, test timing and resource assumptions, and evaluate what continuing a project prevents the organization from doing elsewhere. Planning should account for uncertainty rather than assume an ideal path. Regular portfolio decisions can then stop, defer, or reshape work as evidence changes. A smaller set of supported commitments gives teams a stronger chance of realizing the intended strategy.