It’s hard to believe, but we are 8 weeks into the new year.
Have you finalized your 2025 objectives?
If you work in a big company, my guess is no. Enterprises often take until March to finalize their so-called “annual” goals, plans, and projects.
I get why it takes so long. Cross-functional teams are big. Negotiations are slow. But the delays force employees into a perpetual game of stressed-out catch-up. “How on Earth are we going to do a whole year’s worth of work in ¾ of the time??”
My advice to any of you who are in this situation is to try reframing the issue. Focus less on activity and more on outcomes.
“How can we design our work so we’re able to have more impact in less time?”
This approach forces you to work backwards from the end goal and cut work that wasn’t directly aligned. It frees you to brainstorm new methods that are more efficient and higher leverage than what you’d originally planned.
For those who’ve never been through this exercise, I created a list of nine different types of impact you could have on your business in 2025, grouped into three tiers:
- Tier 1 – Necessary first steps on the path to change.
- Tier 2 – Visible impact that has a temporary or short term effect on events or outcomes.
- Tier 3 – Visible impact that results in long term change to events and outcomes.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but clients tell me it’s a valuable start.
There’s also a natural flow from top to bottom of the chart that helps you think about sequencing and managing expectations.
For example, if you plan to expose people to facts they didn’t already know (knowledge impact) in early Q2, you’ll need to reinforce that message through the quarter. People need time to internalize a new message, so the belief or behavior impact you’re hoping to spur may not show up until Q3. If you’re aiming higher, e.g., for habit and/or process change, that may take until Q4 or later.
Executives may not like the timeline you come up with; they want everything yesterday. But setting unrealistic expectations doesn’t make things go faster. People can only absorb so much information and change at one time. The more realistic you are about the pace of change, the less stress you’ll put on yourself and others.
That doesn’t mean you stop trying to move faster, though. There are proven ways to accelerate impact that I’ve been researching and using with clients for 20+ years. I’ll be sharing many of them over the next few months, so stay tuned!
If you’re working on a program that needs boosting ASAP, email me. We can explore how a custom strategy session or workshop can jumpstart that mission critical work.
In closing, I just want to acknowledge that we’re all feeling increasingly under pressure. Ninety-three percent of people who responded to my recent LinkedIn poll said they feel pressure at work, and 73% described that pressure as moderate or significant.
Hopefully what I’ve shared this time will help you rise to the occasion with speed and confidence. If there are specific roadblocks or challenges you’d like me to address in future posts, let me know.
