# The Organizational Must-Have By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-12-02 If asked to reduce spending, how does one decide the difference between the must-haves and the nice-to-haves? Many can do it without much thought. For example, food is a must-have, but video games are a nice-to-have. This distinction is driven by an explicit understanding of what is required to live and what is not. One cannot live long without food, but one can live without video games. When life and death are at hand, one knows why something is a must-have versus a nice-to-have. However, what happens within an organization when one must distinguish must-haves and nice-to-haves? The decision is not always clear. Until a few years ago, most organizations thought office buildings were must-haves, but now many see that offices are unnecessary. What about an accounting department? Are they necessary? Not anymore with modern software and freelancers. If one goes down the list of organizational must-haves, one will likely find that many are, at a minimum, no longer essential. A serious study would likely yield very few organizationally essential things. Perhaps the only must-have of an organization is something to be done. Everything else is a nice-to-have. So, when one is asked to cut all the nice-to-haves to save money for the organization, one may respond, if they are honest and reflective, with their resignation, as most workers in corporate America have nothing worth doing. This is not a dig at the worker but America's state of work and power. Simply put, just as nearly everything about modern life is nonessential for survival, so too is almost everything about modern organizations and work. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Essence]] [[Work]] [[Priorities]] [[Essential]] [[Management]] [[Culture]]