We are two weeks into the new year and an abundance of ambitious and bold goals are cascading across organizations large and small.
All too often, executive, (and other senior leadership teams) jump into the new year’s ambitions without deeply reflecting on their past experiences.
End of the year business reviews are often numbers driven, followed by a superficial conversation before quickly turning the page to start the new year.
Even author Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline) noted that after-action-reviews often fail because people reduce the living practice of AARs to a sterile technique.
You and your executive team deserve significant rewards and revenue from your reflection experiences.
Poor leadership team reflection leads to minimal or no learning which leads to little or no changes and sets a non-productive standard for reflection across your entire organization.
Here are two structured experience exchanges to help you and your team get more rewards and review from your efforts:
If your team is large enough (eight or more members), break them into two groups. Group one can look at 2023 through these three frames:
-What were our key initiatives in 2023?
-How was the effort, or resources invested into these initiatives? (Too much, about right, too little).
-How would we rate the impact or results of these initiatives? (Overachieved, achieved or under achieved).
Group two can reflect on 2023 through a slightly different lens, namely:
-What were our high impact initiatives in 2023?
-What initiatives did we invest in that came back with low returns?
-What were our missed opportunities in 2023?
After the group work (45 minutes to one hour is more than enough time), each group shares their results and together, the team discusses the key learnings. The team shares their takeaways with the larger organization and builds the best practices into the 2024 and beyond plan.
Continuous improvement doesn’t start at the bottom or the middle of your organization, it starts, at the top and intentional reflection practices are core to continuous improvement.
How do you ensure your leadership teams are setting a best-in-class example for their reflection efforts?
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