Reflection and inflection for your team
It's always a good time to be doing these things. The end of the year or the start of the new one do seem to be times when reflection and inflection seem to be easier to access.
When finishing a session or program with a team, we will often discuss a way to make the best use of the time so that it is not just a nice bit of time away from 'real work' and rather that our time together has been meaningful, productive and will lead to better work in the future. The phrase that I have landed on is "Reflection and Inflection."
Reflection
An intentional look at the work that we have done, what we have learned (about ourselves and each other), how we have grown and the progress that we have made.
One of my favourite quotes about the value of reflection has been attributed to C.S. Lewis:
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?”
This is likely to have been for your team this year. When we are working hard and fast, often reflection feels like a luxury or a waste of time. Taking the time to reflect on the changes that have happened through 2019 with your team is a great way to acknowledge the progress and take what you have learned into the future. It's time well spent.
Inflection
This part of the process is forward looking. The idea being that we use this current point in time to send us on a different and more positive trajectory. Last week, I spoke about the tendency of humans to continue to behave in a certain way unless there is enough reason (and ease) to make the behaviour change. For our teams, this is definitely the case. There is always the opportunity for our teams to improve and when we are at inflection points it is about deciding the direction that we would like to take and perhaps more importantly, how we will get there.
In this domain, I will often refer to James Clear's work and quote from Atomic Habits:
"We don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems."
For our teams at a time of inflection, we want to consider not only what our aspirations are, but the processes that we can put in place to tip the scales in our favour.
It's always a good time to be doing these things. The end of the year or the start of the new one do seem to be times when reflection and inflection seem to be easier to access. I hope that you are able to reflect on 2019 and inflect towards even better things in 2020.
Two questions for you and your team to consider:
What has been the most significant change of 2019?
Where (or if you are brave...who) do you want to be in 2020?