(Mondays are Lynn Miles Peisker days at The Daily Blur. Lynn serves as the Executive Sister and Chief Plate Spinner at the Imagination Advisory Group. Check out her growing archive of posts here.)
The theme of this post is…well… themes.
Do you have one?
A micro-urban school district will focus on student and family centered service this year. This will not replace their mission statement or goals and objectives. They still must educate children, staff each campus and try to navigate a shrinking budget. But providing better customer service to their students and their families will be their rallying cry for the next 12 months.
A large retail company will focus on making a positive difference this year. They will not replace their mission statement or goals and objectives. They must still anticipate trends, buy and sell product, staff their stores and navigate market trends. But making a positive difference will give a focus to all they do for the year ahead.
Consider empowering your year with a theme. Give your team a maypole around which to dance. A rallying cry. A reason to do better, be better, give more. A reason to get up every morning and go be awesome.
Back-to-school season is a great time to start something new. The new year is just around the corner. College football is a great season to schedule a kickoff. The timing is perfect. Here’s how:
- Pick a theme for the year ahead. Determine to let it color all you do.
- Select a team from all areas of the organization to discuss ways to build upon it.
- Give them a budget of time and money to empower the process.
- Stay focused but have fun with your theme.
- Evaluate the highs and lows at the end of the year.
- Make adjustments.
- Do it again next year, but choose a different theme.
Ideas, you ask? giving back to the community – teamwork makes good work – we are family – all kinds of people – right in our backyard – mountain top experience – dressed to serve – think first – building bridges – building blocks of service – twelve months of fun – feeding our brains – think outside the box – race to the finish line – marathon not a sprint – team fitness of body and mind – nourishing the soul of our company – great big world vision – world series – super bowl – charity of the month club – make it a memorable year – recruitmentpalooza – making lemonade out of lemons – org chart flip – dream-maker – popcorn – thinking clearly – growth charts – family table – superhero service
I have about 30 ideas for each of these themes. If Ryan and Tim and I put our heads together we’d have about 100 more. (This is just one of the reasons your owner-operated company should hire us, by the way.)
Make the year ahead even awesomer.
(Hey, that’s a good theme!)
Leave a Reply