On the wall, across from my desk is a list of 7 areas of focus for 2024. This list includes personal and business goals. This list of goals informs how I spend my time. Before, I memorialized my goals, I reflected on my vision. My vision is to see leaders flourish and succeed. The goals, when achieved, move me closer to this ideal future.
For teams, this is how you can work to build your plan for 2024 –
1.) Clarify Your Vision- A question we pose in leadership retreats to clarify your vision is “It is a year from now and we are in this room, what are we celebrating?” Or “What would we want the headline to say in the Wall Street Journal?”
2.) Current Reality – An analysis of your company strengths and weaknesses, along with the external opportunities and threats defines the brutal facts about your business. Take time in advance of your retreat to have each participant outline the current reality of your business.
3.) Critical Path – Once you have defined your vision and current reality, ask “How can we leverage our strengths to seize opportunities or mitigate threats?” – Brainstorm the projects you would like to complete to move closer to your vision.
4.) Condense – You cannot do every project. Take each project options and utilize a prioritization matrix. For example: Choose one of your project options and determine the difficult of the project – “Easy” or “Hard.” Then decide if the impact to the business is “High” or “Low.” Start with the easy to implement and high impact items. Throw away the hard to implement low impact items.
5.) Clarify – In this final step, decide who will complete or sponsor each project. Be sure to us time in your executive team sessions to revisit progress for each of the projects you prioritized.
Good luck!