This statement was uttered repeatedly throughout my childhood, especially during the holidays. In fact, any time my family gathers together, we are bound to end up at a table playing some game. Imagine that we invite you to play a new game. Would you prefer to see how we play the game before learning to play, or would you prefer we just start the game and teach you how to play as we go along? Most people want to learn first by seeing; it makes doing much easier because if you watch us play first, you gain a big-picture understanding of what to expect.
Employees, too, need the meta-narrative of what to expect when scanning the year with their employers. Getting employees together gets them realigned and in focus for the New Year. Even in sports, the team huddles between plays to get realigned and focused for the next play. The New Year offers you the opportunity to huddle together and remind everyone of where you’re going, how you will plan together, and how each person, team, or unit can help. Don’t leave it up to memory, or the last time you cracked open the strategy, or living in some online document. Just like learning to play a game, they need to regroup, to recall the rules of play, to understand the goals, the penalties, and what it looks like to win.
This New Year, take some time to recalibrate. Reintroduce the organization through intentional conversations that help everyone get aligned with the direction of the company while encouraging questions that result in greater buy-in and the achievement of goals.
Here are just a few steps to help you do so:
- Celebrate wins and acknowledge setbacks. This humanizes the experience and creates space to learn from various lessons.
- Revisit your mission, vision, and your goals. Believe it or not, most employees don’t meditate on these things. Make it make sense for everyone to collaborate for optimal performance.
- Review expectations. What do you expect of individuals and teams going into the New Year? What has shifted, moved up or down in priority, and why?
- Reaffirm (or establish) team and organization norms. I’ve been preaching the need for norms for a few years now. Norms are the agreed-upon practices and behaviors that the team adopts that foster enhanced communication, collaboration, conflict management, and creativity in a safe and productive environment.
- Agendize for order and clarity. A meeting without a stated or written agenda is like a road with no barriers. Before you know it, you’ll be side-tracked and lost, wondering how you got there.
- Action and Accountability. What actions will be taken in the next 7, 10, 15, 30, 60, and/or 90 days to facilitate goal achievement, and how will you hold yourselves accountable?
I’m sure you have plenty of other enhancements for this list, but the goal is to stay focused. The year will bring plenty of distractions, so anticipate what you can, but ensure your players remain mentally, physically and emotionally ready for the game and connected to the mission for a win!
Here’s to a successful and bright New Year together.
Pam
