It’s the end of the year! And you’re probably super busy! Projects are wrapping up, performance is being reviewed; holidays are looming and a new fiscal year will be landing on top of us before we know it.
But we’re guessing that in all of the hustle and bustle of December, you probably can’t help but take stock of the year you’ve just finished. Did you achieve what you wanted to in 2024? Were you able to realize the grand plans that you dreamed up around this time a year ago? And while your musing and reminiscing, here’s another question to add to your stock-taking: did you get together with your team as much or as well as you wanted to this year?
Be honest…
Planning for 2025. We know. Hear us out.
If you’re anything like most of the teams we work with, the answer is: probably not. For reasons we’ve been exploring in this newsletter over the past few months, bringing your team together, in-person, for big events and meetings is tough. And by the time we realize that getting everyone in the room would help us solve a particularly thorny problem that’s emerged, the logistics and scheduling can make that impossible.
As daunting as it seems, NOW is the time to start thinking about how and when you’ll bring your team, your leaders, and your clients together in 2025. And before you slam your laptop shut so that you can throw this newsletter out of a window: this doesn’t mean building the agendas and sending out invites. It DOES mean asking yourself some questions that we promise will set you up for success next year.
Think of the below as a quick guide to spark your thinking around a simple idea: how can I get the most out of bringing my team and my stakeholders together next year?
When are you getting together with your team?
How will you keep the people you work with and depend on every day engaged with your goals next year? How will you shake up the day-to-day routine and unlock their talent and excitement? A series of amazing workshops, for example; planned in advance, these events can have an incredible, energizing effect on a team. And instead of throwing one together ad-hoc or in response to some unexpected challenge, why not start thinking about some strategic calendar dates sooner than later?
When are you getting together with your customers?
What’s more important, in a rapidly changing, uncertain business environment, than knowing what’s on your customers’ minds? Start planning now for when you’ll get together with your most important clients. Maybe it’s a series of structured, exploratory meetings or maybe it’s a few big Client Advisory Board gatherings. Regardless, your customers want to know that your already thinking about how to engage them in the year ahead.
How will you make sure that YOU will show up at your best?
Getting together in-person takes a lot of time and coordination. As a leader, how will you make sure that you are prepared and ready to make the most out of it? How will you ensure the same for other leaders in your organization? In short: how will you make every second count? In all of the planning and logistics, it’s easy to lose sight of how to show up at your best to a big meeting or event that’s been planned.
Getting together
A recent Gartner survey of 18,000 employees found that only 29% were satisfied with their collaboration at work. With all of the digital tools at our disposal, with all of the efforts around returning to the office still being negotiated, we are all learning and relearning how to work together, in-person, well. It’s not enough to just assume things will get back to “normal” at some point. Work has changed. But change, as we all know, can be amazing.
Let’s figure out how to navigate these changes together. Reach out to us today to talk about anything that’s on your mind. We’ve got your back.