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Big questions for a new year

15 December 2023
Pause the hamster wheel and set a more thoughtful course for 2024.

One of the things I love about ending a year and looking forward to a new one is pausing to reflect on how the year has gone and thinking about what a good new year would look like for me and my business. It’s the ‘festive edition’ version of what I do at the end of every week, only with a longer view and a generously proportioned mince pie beside me.  Asking some big questions now before the work hamster wheel starts spinning again helps us set a more thoughtful course for the year ahead.

When we talk about time management, we often focus on the day-to-day, week-to-week view.  How efficiently can we get through our to-do list today? What days will we be working from home vs in the office? Who do we need to speak to or meet up with this week? Yet as I describe in The Future of Time, applying #timeintelligence means taking the long view too (check out my November blog for a 5 minute ‘all you need to know’ overview of what ‘time intelligence’ is and how we can use it). From the research I read and the conversations I have, it’s clear to me that asking the bigger questions benefits us as individuals, as teams and as whole organisations. Here are four ‘time intelligent’ questions that take the longer-term view that you can ask yourself, individuals you manage or mentor, or the team(s) you lead.

What do you want to have a shot at?

I was interviewing someone yesterday about their experiences of working at a former employer, and they told me ‘I wasn't there just for the salary, I came to learn and I had career dreams to achieve'. This echoed another comment from an investment professional while I was researching for my book, who told me the reason they chose to stay at their organisation was ‘You say where you want your career to go, what your ambitions are, what you want to achieve over the next five years and they’ll try and help you into those roles.’ Having this kind of conversation can be incredibly motivating for people as it lets them know that you’re interested in the answer and you’ll do what you can to help them realise their aspirations. Having the conversation with yourself gets you thinking differently about what you’re doing and can kick start your future ambitions now instead of kicking them down the road (again).

What doesn’t appear in your diary that you’d like to see in there?

This about the things we find hard to carve out time for but that really matter to us in some way. Outside of work it may be about exercise, a lapsed hobby you’re longing to pick up again or a ‘one day, I’m going to ….’ cherished ambition. Work-wise, it’s typically it’s the important proactive stuff that will help us advance in some way like longer-term planning, strategic thinking or creative work, but when it’s not deadline-driven it invariably ends up being squeezed out by more urgent, reactive activity. In a survey I did back in November 2020, I asked people exactly this. They said things like ‘analysis of work trends and customer data to plan work in a more targeted fashion’; ‘process and system development, testing & feedback, to identify and avoid problems before they reach customers’ and ‘deep thinking which benefits the company strategically’.  Imagine how much an organisation and its customers would benefit if people found it easier to make time for these valuable activities.

What would you do differently next time?

Often during my Time Intelligence workshops, teams will say ‘we don’t get time to review how we’re working or debate better ways to do things’.  People really want to have these conversations, to use the pause between sprints or deadlines to figure out how they can work more efficiently, resolve issues that cause delays and bottlenecks and to feel like they’re gaining the learning that will build their skills and expertise and help them advance in their career.  In ‘Building Learning Organisations’, the management guru Peter Senge identifies how businesses that are successful over the longer term invest a huge proportion of their time in continuous learning. Not just formal training and development but this cultural habit of constantly reviewing our ways of working, the outcomes we’re seeing and what we’re learning from both.

Who do you talk to at work?

I mean this in the sense of ‘who do you confide in?’ and ‘who do you hang out with?’. We may be back in the office more regularly but this doesn’t mean we’re all bonding like mad and building close, rewarding friendships. On my free webinar ‘Make office time popular again’ last week (join my January free webinar on ‘Fewer, better meetings’ here), attendees were worrying most about the small number of people who are coming in but not interacting with others in any meaningful way. As Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace research shows, having a close friend at work is a big driver of employee engagement, making people feel more motivated to stay and do their best work. Software company Atlassian’s ‘Team Anywhere’ research found that team connection grew by 27% after they invested time in bringing people together for social and ‘culture-building’ events. And on my podcast The Business of Being Brilliant, Professor Robin Dunbar explains why the best thing a CEO can do is design more opportunities for people to meet in person for ‘synchronised social activities’ like eating a meal, singing or playing a game. It sounds almost laughably simple and slightly old-fashioned, but it’s still powerful stuff.

Thinking about these 4 questions myself, on my ‘have a shot at’ list is getting invited onto TV or radio to give an expert point of view, applying for and getting accepted for a TEDx talk and collaborating on some research. What doesn’t appear in my diary, despite my best intentions every week? Time to update my website, finish my new online ‘time intelligence’ diagnostic and start planning book 2. Please ask me how these are going when we’re next in touch! I’m definitely going to be asking myself ‘what would I do differently next year’ as I ponder what I’ve learnt about this year’s efforts and I’m making a list of wise and wonderful people I want to catch up with again because it’s been too long since we last spoke.

What would your answers be? Pop me an email at hello@helenbeedham.com, I’d love to hear and I promise to respond. While I’m reaching unashamedly for another mince pie….

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