Time does feel winged sometimes...doesn't it? For anyone keeping score, we've got one more quarter to go before the phrase "30 years ago" is officially referencing 1990 (not 1970 as my brain keeps wanting to believe)!
So how are you feeling about the story you'll tell emerging from this decade, and the vision you'll bring with you into the next?
In our work, we have the great pleasure of running
Thrive Checks with clients - engagements designed to excite and inspire teams around what could be, and to create actions and commitments to help move in that direction.
Today we're passing some of our Thrive Check principles onto you in the hopes that something resonates and helps set you and your team up for a thriving year end, and new one to come.
To be clear, we're not trying to usurp the formal year-end process. Speak of strengths, development areas and SMART goals when and if you must. But this exercise is designed to be separate. To inspire, to spark imagination, to build momentum, and establish a true sense of "us."
Craft an inspired story
Sit with your team and ask them - what are you most proud of having achieved? Accomplishments are fine. But push them to think about impact. Whom did they delight? How did their actions create a meaningful outcome? What specific behaviors (i.e., risk-taking? curiosity? collaboration?) really served them? Collect the highlights, and craft a powerful shared story that helps them rally around what they've already achieved, creating momentum for the look ahead.
Envision what could be
Again, this is a space in which to be free. Creative. Don't focus on metrics and milestones. Invite the team to imagine what could be unleashed if obstacles and too many meetings weren't getting in the way. What outcomes could we create? What would truly excite and inspire us? Emerge with a vision that has people revved up for the decade to come.
Capture commitment
How much do people believe in the vision you've crafted? Here's the time to find out. What are they willing to commit to? Learning, collaborating, experimenting, putting themselves out there... what is something bold that each person on the team will commit in service of bringing the shared vision to life? Put pen to paper - capture commitments to make it tangible. You'll build the plan later. But for now, focus on closing out the decade with a sense of optimistic clarity around what could be - and how we might begin to make it happen.
We hope the ideas above inspire connection - both with your team and to a vision for the future. It's meant to be light and exciting. We would LOVE to hear what you've come up with. Would you
share it with us? We'd be ever so grateful!
Related:
A Change Plan Is Only as Strong as the Commitment to Nurturing Change
