If you have not yet taken a deep dive into your 2019 team experiences, it is not too late. In fact, you are often able to draw more from these experiences if you let some time pass, (like the holidays) before reflecting on the business year behind you.
All too often, teams (and organizations) go through their year-end results too quickly. End of the year reviews are often only numbers driven, followed by a brief conversation before quickly turning the page to start the New Year.
You and your team deserve to get more “return on reflection” (RoR), because weak team reflection leads to minimal or no learning which leads to little or no changes for the New Year. Everyone in the team holds an important part of your “reflection puzzle”. Put the puzzle together and you create maximum return on reflection.
Here are two structured experience exchanges to help you and your team get more RoR from last year’s efforts:
If your team is large enough (eight or more members), break them into two groups. Group 1 can look at 2019 through these three frames:
- What were our key initiatives in 2019?
- 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 2 can reflect on 2019 through a slightly different lens, namely:
- What were our high impact initiatives in 2019?
- What initiatives did we invest in that came back with low returns?
- What were our missed opportunities in 2019?
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 then shares their takeaways with the larger organization.
Your reflections can lead to significant returns for you – but you have to work them first!
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash