Don’t Make a New Year’s Resolution, Make a Plan
2022 was a year of self-discovery and planning for me. I’ve spent the last few years constantly going forward, creating new things, meeting new people — and it’s been amazing — but I started to realize that I wasn’t really making the kind of progress I wanted. So I decided to practice what I preach, so to speak.
It all started with recruiting someone else to help me refocus my north star and strategize next steps. I had to look back at where I was stuck and stumbling to really understand where I should be going — so today, we’re going to look back on some of the trends of 2022 to really understand where we should be going in 2023.
The Human Energy Revolution
In October 2022, Arianna Huffington published an article on LinkedIn titled, “We’re at the Start of a Human Energy Revolution.” Huffington writes that, “as old norms and assumptions fall away, the Human Energy Revolution has the potential to be just as consequential as the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries.”
Huffington aptly points out that our current model of life and work “dates back to the Industrial Revolution.” The echoes of colonialism and vassaldom can still be heard in the ways we organize our lives.
And why do we keep centering work and shaping everything else in our lives around it? Because that’s what we’ve been doing for generations now. But we assumed the Sun revolved around the Earth for most of human history until Copernicus came around, Huffington points out. Sometimes we need people to shake us and remind us that our assumptions aren’t tantamount to truth, and the way we have always done things isn’t the way we should continue to do them in perpetuity.
Let’s hope that the 21st century is kinder to its revolutionary thinkers than the 17th century was to Copernicus and Galileo.
The Experience Gap
I just keep coming back to what Jill Popelka said about the employee experience in “Experience, Inc” and Strategic Momentum Episode 112. Jill defines the employee experience as the beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that result from your job experience. It’s the confluence of an individual’s sense of purpose, agency, belonging and recognition.
But there’s a big problem when it comes to the employee experience today, according to Jill:
“90% of executives believe that they're delivering a great employee experience. 30% of employees believe that they're getting a great experience.”
That gap is responsible for a lot of the friction and discontentment in the workforce today. That gap is a result of these antiquated structures that date back to the Industrial Revolution. Closing that gap — which means leadership developing an intimate understanding of what drives the individuals that they work with — is the first step we have to take towards creating a future of work that works for everyone.
HR is Broken
The human resources department as we know it is broken. Don’t get me wrong — there are a lot of talented HR professionals who truly want to be employee advocates — but nearly half of workers just don’t trust HR. That lack of trust exaggerates the employee experience gap because it creates huge blindspots around the problems that your people have, big or small.
I don’t claim to know exactly what the future of HR should look like, but Joseph Grenny and Derek Cullimore offer some good places to start in their article on HBR: advocate as a coach, advocate as a mentor, or advocate as a mediator. If you develop your skills and talents towards fulfilling these functions, the human resources department can start to regain that trust, which will help leadership develop a holistic understanding of their organization.
Looking Back to Move Forward
I don’t think I would be where I am right now if I didn’t pause last year and take some time to reassess, understand what was holding me back, and make a plan. So, in 2023, don’t make a New Year’s Resolution — make a plan to do the same for yourself just like your organization does. Spot those key trends from last year and even before that which provide insight into what you should focus on.
If there’s any way I can help you with that, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I provide Strategic Consulting & Research, Executive Workshops, and Keynote Speeches for organizations looking to drive workforce engagement, retention, and employee development by understanding the Voice of the Workforce. I also provide Career Strategy Development and Personal Brand Development consulting for individuals who are looking to align their passion and their purpose. I’d love to help you make 2023 your best year yet.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn as part of Connie Steele’s monthly newsletter, The Human Side of Work. You can find the original article and subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-make-new-years-resolution-plan-connie-wang-steele.