Prepare for the Year Ahead with This Simple Reflection Exercise
In early December 2022, I had the honour of co-hosting a retreat for senior design leaders. We spent five days in Australia’s Yarra Valley dedicated to strategising, reflecting, recharging, and preparing for the year ahead. And we also made sure to give everyone some downtime to spend in nature, meditate, get massages, do yoga, and whatever other activities helped them recharge. If you’re wishing you had been there and curious to learn more, you can check out the retreat website here.
One of our goals for the retreat was to provide a space for and facilitate end of year reflection. I believe this is a valuable exercise for everyone—even if you don’t happen to be on a retreat—so I wanted to share a quick guide to how you can approach your own end of year reflection.
Start with a format that’s familiar
The format for your reflection doesn’t have to be anything too complicated. You can essentially follow the pattern of a retro meeting where you consider what went well, what could have been improved, and what you should stop, start, or continue doing.
For example, your wins for the year might include things like: moving from outputs to outcomes, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, or coordinating with peers to shape organisational strategy. Most people don’t have any trouble coming up with areas for improvement, but these could include prioritising work/life balance, being a better leader and mentor to your team, or more clearly articulating how your practice connects to business outcomes.
During the retreat, we did this in both a personal and professional capacity, and I’d recommend spending time on both if you can.
Create an action plan
Based on what surfaces during this exercise, you can create an action plan for the year ahead. If you’re feeling stuck, using a template or guide like the “wheel of priorities” shown below can help you identify a few major areas of focus.
As a general trend, at the end of 2022 leading into 2023, we’re seeing a lot of uncertainty about what’s to come. In terms of planning for the year ahead, this means there’s less of an emphasis on growth than there has been in the past.
If your organisation is facing economic instability and potential hiring freezes, your action plan will likely focus on training and upskilling the team you already have. Your action plan may be something like “Develop the team I have to meet the needs of the organisation.”
Tips for success
I recognise that this can sometimes feel like an overwhelming activity, so I wanted to share a few tips to help you make the most of your end-of-year reflection and action plan for the year ahead.
Your action plan should align with business strategy and peer practices. If you’re a design leader, for example, you should know what product, engineering, and marketing have planned and make sure you’re all generally working toward similar goals.
Limit yourself to a few key initiatives. This is where the “wheel of priorities” I shared in the previous section can really come in handy. You might even want to print out a copy and use colourful markers to indicate which areas you’ll be prioritising (e.g. choose one or two spokes that you’ll pursue at full capacity and another one or two that will be secondary).
This is not a New Year’s Resolution. You can continue to check in on your action plan and it should shape what your team is doing on an ongoing basis. How are you tracking on achieving it? You can approach this in a similar way to tracking OKRs for a product team, for example.
Be flexible. While you’re creating your action plan with the information you have right now, recognise that your priorities might change during the year.
Create a visual version. Whether you print out a copy of your “wheel of priorities” or write up your action plan, it can be helpful to have a visual reminder of your goals and priorities. I find it especially helpful when you can serendipitously encounter this artefact from time to time and remind yourself of its contents.
I’m here to help
Finally, remember that you don’t have to do all this on your own. If you’re looking for someone to partner with on your strategic planning—whether it’s for yourself or your organisation—I’m here to help!
I’m thrilled to share that I’m available to work with three new coaching clients and one transformation client in Q1 of 2023. If you’re interested in discussing how we can partner to help you define and achieve your strategic goals, get in touch to book a discovery call.
