December is definitely the new January. What do we mean by that? What we mean is, the end of the year always gets busy, but it doesn’t have to get you down. Or slow you down at all. In fact, if you’re smart, you’ll sprint a bit to the finish before taking the holidays off.
Sure, the year is almost over. But so what? It’s not over yet. While everyone else is putting the brakes on, take the opportunity and the advantage to zoom past them and grab the best space in the year-end parking lot.
Here are a few holiday tips from the Innovation Minds team to help you finish this year with a BANG! And start next year early with excitement, focus, and energy.. Let us help you help your organization find its biggest success of 2021 in these last few weeks. Or even create a new level of success for 2022 ahead of time!
1. The Journey is the Destination: Roadmap Planning
December in Innovation Minds-speak means: “Plan your roadmap for next year.” Why wait until January to start 2022 when you can get moving now? Don’t be old-fashioned. Your C-Suite doesn’t want to sit through Power Points and projection spreadsheets any more than you do. Help bring positive change to your company and get your strategies in place early. Let us help you bring in our state-of-the-art Innovation Minds Roadmap Planning Workshop. It’s FREE. Why not give it a try?
2. Practice Makes Perfect: Back to the Office
Working from home is here to stay. But for many companies, it’s also time to start getting back to the office. How do your employees feel about this next step? Relieved? Excited? Afraid? You need to recognize and embrace the changes in what the workplace is about in order to set up a successful return-to-office strategy. The core purpose of the physical workplace is now collaboration. Meeting spaces, whether formal conference rooms or informal gathering areas, have become far more important than individual offices now. Let Innovation Minds help you with the latest strategies being practiced by the most successful hybrid companies.
3. Use It or Lose It
You know that old saying about money burning a hole in your pocket? Many departments actually have such a situation at the end of the year, having a surplus of funds left unspent, and the odd situation that they might even get their budget reduced next year if they don’t spend it. Do you have such a situation? If so, we suggest you give a shot at investing in our pilot platform for 2022. It’s strategic spend to invest in productivity, innovation, and employee engagement without any risk.
4. When in Doubt, Throw it Out
Out with the old, and in with the new, as they say. December is the perfect time to get rid of whatever you don’t need anymore from this year before the new year rings in. This means cleaning out your digital space just as much as your physical one – especially in today’s hybrid world. Help your organization start the year tidy. Follow Marie Kondo‘s techniques such as discarding by category and making discard the default. Get organized before 2022 starts throwing new messes at you.
5. The Only Failure is to Fail to Learn From Failure
Some of your plans might have failed. In your opinion. In your opinion, of course, is the key phrase. Because first of all, yes, that’s right, it’s just your opinion. Do others see it as a failure or are you just being hard on yourself? Secondly, welcome to the human race. We all fail sometimes. Our companies do too. Cross at least half your “failures” off your list as not failures at all. Make peace with the ones that are left by reminding yourself what you have learned. Your failures in 2021 may be the very source of your successes in 2022. It often happens that way. Think about it. Weren’t some of your successes this year the result of failures before? December is the right moment to file your failures – and other mental ‘documents’ – away as much as your physical and digital files.
6. Appreciate Your People
Make sure you are sharing the abundance of your success in 2021 with everyone who has supported it. Showing appreciation to everyone you can boosts your organization’s reputation and improves retention. The reputation you will build with acts of clear and powerful gratitude will help attract top talent. Creating a team holiday out is a great way to show your thanks.. Even just year-end “Thank You” cards can work magic, if they share heartfelt and authentic sentiments personalized to each employee.
7. Plan Your Celebrations
Embrace the spirit of the holiday season and celebrate! Celebrate the 2021 achievements that are already behind you, of course. But also celebrate your 2022 achievements in advance. Make your 2022 celebrations part of your roadmap planning too. You don’t have to wait until the results are in. Celebration boosts confidence and increases motivation. And setting up your future celebrations now can actually help create the successes you will celebrate later. Anyway, everyone knows December is the right time to get your celebration mojo in gear.
One more thing. We’re excited to announce that soon, we will be able to help you celebrate at our new Silicon Valley Innovation Studios. That’s right! In March 2022 we will be able to start welcoming you to host your events and off-sites. Only four months away!! Tick tock, tick tock! We can’t wait for you to join us.
By Michael Lee, Jayanthi Palanisamy, Chandraleka Ranjith, and Rosemary Rein
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