Year End Check In

The end of the year is approaching fast. For many of us, this means completing year end reviews and surveys from this year’s activities. This could also mean management meetings for reviewing the goals outlined for the year and objectives upcoming. Does your team participate in a full-blown strategy planning session? Do you just let the year roll over and carry on business as usual? Sometimes senior management gets wrapped up in their own undertakings that your items get delayed or forgotten. You might find yourself having to plan your own year-end items or you're somewhere in between those, but not to worry. If you would like to create a lightweight framework to plan for the upcoming year, here's a simple exercise that you can have the entire team participate in, or, perform all by yourself:

Find yourself some empty white board space, grab a blank sheet of paper, or section off some of your desk space. You're going to need to find room for three buckets. If you're a bit of an artist you can draw a big outline of a traffic light. Think of a rectangle, taller than it is wide, with three circles stacked vertically within the shape. Label the top circle, "Start". This is where the green light is. The middle circle that is yellow is labeled, "Keep". The lowest circle in the traffic light is the red light and the label is "Stop". Now that we have our outline let's fill it in and give some context to our exercise and plan for 2020!

Start

The first category is where procrastinating ends: you know those things you put off, but you know you really, really should be doing them? It’s time to make a change, and there is no time like 2020 to start. This category should be filled with things that are reasonable and within your (and your team’s) control. Think of goals, actions or behaviors you need in order to be successful. An example may be, "Start a blog and post 1 article per month." This one's great. Anyone not connected to your organization can read it and understand it. There are plenty of ways to tackle it and begin your blogging efforts. Shy away from filling this section with things like "Start being the best business ever!". That's going to be a bit ambiguous for this exercise. Review what you/your team set out at the beginning of the year to accomplish. Were all of these able to be completed? If not, put these at the top and give yourself the green light with specific, attainable goals in your Start section.

Keep

Guess what? You're doing amazing things and you need to recognize them! You & your team shouldn’t lose sight of these positives, as they helped keep you achieving your goals. In previous years these items that could have fallen into the above/Start category. They were being ignored but you identified the gap, and put action into place to turn it around. The "Keep" section should help you prioritize the items which set your company apart from the rest of the field. Consider what your employees, customers, and community appreciate about the culture & what has been achieved, and brag about it! An example of what you may find yourself writing is, "Keep providing clients an estimate within 7 days of initial contact." What you're doing works but, if you don't identify it as important, it could fall by the wayside. Some items could also come from the company’s mission statement/core values. These are the focus areas to help drive the company…are they still being prioritized? The yellow light/Keep section allows for you to slow down, re-focus and place acknowledgement of what is right in front of you.

Stop

Can you imagine what might belong here? The red/Stop category generally offers a chance to get honest about your team & business. These procedures/habits that are not helpful/healthy to the company (and possibly you or your team) and they are patterns that are hard to break. You may consider an example to be, "Stop letting the email inbox dictate the day." This is something that can be remedied with an actionable plan and is perfectly appropriate to stop doing. This part of the exercise may be especially tough if you are doing this in a group setting. Be prepared to facilitate the conversation if any of the identified behaviors or actions put someone into a defensive stance. Outline and explain why the changes are being put in place, and how that benefits both the employee(s) and the company. Employees are more likely to embrace change if leadership shows the benefits. Clearly communicate the timeline of how the change will be implemented and the goal/deadline for it to take place.

The year end is upon us!

Finding time to stop and force ourselves to work on the internal workings of the business can be tough when it seems as if a majority of the time is spent thinking about the million things we didn't get to. If you need a quick and easy exercise to put yourself through this may be one to try. With the average traffic light cycle being around 120 seconds it's just enough time to fumble with the radio or think about one big move you can make in your professional endeavors. Depending on your time available, you can make this as short or as long as you would like. Next time you find yourself waiting for a green light to get that 100 ft view of your performance or that of the company, why not consider one thing you would start, keep, or stop in your business for 2020.