Step 1: Get clear about your team’s direction, subject to where you are in the lifecycle of the organization. You might be either recovering from a trauma or capitalizing on momentum. Your team may be on the threshold of innovation or sorting out a disaster. So, the first step is to clarify an ambitious yet realistic goal for your team’s season.
Step 2: Demand an atmosphere of respect, accountability, and collaboration. Anything that interferes with a safe ecosystem should be called out and mitigated. Regardless of your position on the team, your thoughts and feelings matter. You might not have decision authority, but having your voice heard allows you to support leadership’s direction.
Step 3: Explore, experiment, and discover. The landscape has changed and what has worked in the past may no longer apply. Consider the viewpoints of your teammates with a nonjudgmental perspective. The stewards want to protect the team’s legacy – so let them! The visionaries want to move to the future – follow their light! The entrepreneurs want to build the bridge from today to tomorrow – empower them! This is how innovation occurs. Part of the team protects history, another part pulls teammates forward, and some others pay attention to the steps needed to get there.
Step 4: Adapt to the change you have created. It’s easier said than done. Most of us prefer things to stay the same even though change is constant. Unfortunately, literally nothing stays the same – not our DNA, not our circumstances, not our coping resources. So, we must grow. We need to find new ways to address situations we’ve never encountered.
It’s hour-one, minute-one, and second-one of your new season. What have you inherited from last year? Are you truly willing to waste another year on the repetition of what has become normalized? Shake it up. Life is short. You only get to recalibrate once a year. There’s a tried-and-true formula for maximizing the reboot. Harness the energy of the offseason recovery to restate mission, anchor accountability, empower innovation, and strengthen resilience.
The clock is moving.
