Year-in-Review: Lucky Seven: Key Insights, Ideas, Reminders & Lessons Learned from 2023

​We spend a lot of time taking photos and videos of life’s moments—from documenting our meals to vacation selfies, our phones hold a lot of memories. The pictures and images we record help us remember what happened. But what helps us learn from it?
 
The strategy I use is to make time for reflection. As a practice, I try to do a little reflection at the end of the week, when a project or client engagement ends, and at the end of the year. Spending a little time looking back helps me celebrate my successes and learn how to fail forward. It also helps me remember the great ideas—those aha moments that are big and powerful, but that can get lost over time.
 
Trying to take my own advice, I looked back at my 2023 blogs. I stood back and squinted my eyes a little to see what really popped. No surprise, much of it happened thanks to the CliffsNotes Book Club discussions (visit the portal for the schedule and book summaries). Having a regular injection of ideas, and great discussion with fellow coaches and OD consultants is always a highlight for me. Here’s my ‘Lucky Seven” list:

Laura's Lucky Seven of 2023

1. A lot is wrong, and we have the power to redesign it. The insights I carried from the book Beloved Economies by Jess Rimington and Joanna Levitt Cea blew my mind. (Read more in this blog.) The basic premise is that our current way of working is not working for us, and we have the power to reimagine, and redesign it. All of it! The authors pose a great question: If you work in a company where you trust your employees and treat them with respect, how can you design the systems differently? What I love about it is that it puts us in the driver’s seat. It’s where we have been all along, but at times one can forget… 
2. Subtract, don’t add. We humans have a tendency to take on more and more. Over time it can result in an overloaded calendar, a packed workday, and a cluttered life. This is the central argument of the book Subract by Leidy Klotz. (Read more in this blog.) Next time you want to improve a process, think about what you can subtract instead of add.
3. Imagining the future you want helps you create it. The act of imagining the future can open you up to new, and possibly better ideas. A different part of the brain is activated when you think about one year from now versus the distant future—say 10-years from now. Intentional focus on the long-term can help you create your future, by training your brain to be more open and creative. (Read more in this blog.)
4. Stop making decisions. Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Dan Purvis and Jason Smith, authors of 28 Days to Save the World. (I wrote up highlights in this blog.) These leaders have amazing stories of their tech organization—and many transferrable lessons for leaders in workplaces everywhere. One point that stuck with me was when Dan said his two favorite words are “you decide.” He leverages this phrase to instill trust and autonomy in his direct reports to encourage them to make decisions on their own. I think about that every time I work with clients who want to push down decision-making authority or drive accountability.
5. ‘Abundance’ mindset. One powerful mindset shift is to move from ‘scarcity’ to ‘abundance.’ Leaders with an abundance mindset look for win-win situations, trust others’ intent, and support creative solutions. Their actions permeate the workplace culture and positively impact engagement overall. In this blog, I share ideas for how to make the shift. 
6. Write out the unwritten rules.  People often ask me what the secret to a high-performing team is, and establishing Group Agreements is a tactic I can’t emphasize enough. Group Agreements are norms and guidelines, created by a work team or division, that explicitly state the otherwise unwritten rules of how you agree to interact. For more on how to set them up, check out this blog.
7. Create more friction. Email is out of control, yet we all continue to rely heavily on it. One big insight I had this year is to make it just a little harder for me to shoot off that email. Before hitting send, I try to imagine having to get up from my desk, walk down the hall, interrupt the person from their work, and verbalize the email message to the actual person. If I think it’s still worth it after all that, then I send the message. Otherwise, I save it for a meeting or capture the thought elsewhere. Creating this extra 'friction' helps to reduce the amount of information we send and be more intentional with our communications. (For more on this topic, see my blog and visit the portal  for the book notes on A World Without Email by Cal Newport.) 

 
Thanks for letting me share my “lucky seven.” Let me know what ideas this sparks, and what strategies you’re looking to implement for 2024.