The turning of the calendar is a time for reflection and resolution, when we think about what we learned in the past year and want to do differently in the next.
It’s a healthy process for each of us as individuals, and also as managers and stewards of organizations. The only problem: It doesn’t usually work. One recent study found that only 8 percent of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions actually keep them.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use the new year as a springboard for change. In fact, many thriving organizations do just that in the first weeks of January or at the start of their own fiscal year.
They launch new organizational structures, move people into new positions and set stretch goals. These steps turn resolutions and good intentions into meaningful initiatives with a high likelihood of success.
If you’re in an organization that leverages the new year as a time for a fresh start, you’re probably already busy making plans for the coming weeks. If that’s not the case, there are still steps that you can take as an individual manager to accelerate progress:
First, ask yourself (and your team) the following question: What one or two specific shifts would make the biggest difference for the success of my unit or my own career? One of my clients, for example, has challenged her team to double the number of deals they close over the next year, which would fundamentally change the business dynamics at the company.
Then, based on your answer to this question, engage your team and others in a rapid-cycle innovation process to test ideas for making and sustaining the needed shift.
In other words, instead of planning and studying the idea to death, push yourself and your team to get something accomplished in the first few weeks of the year.
For example, the manager mentioned above is setting up a ‘’deal fair’’ to present a large number of potential deals to a senior management advisory committee as a way of getting early input. This will allow her to better focus resources on deals that have the best chance of approval.
If you choose your targets wisely, you can use the natural energy that’s released at the start of the new year to jump-start your progress – and give you something to build upon for the rest of the year.
(Ron Ashkenas is a managing partner of Schaffer Consulting, and is currently serving as an executive-in-residence at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a co-author of “The GE Work-Out’’ and “The Boundaryless Organization.’’)
