Are you considering how to lay out your vision for 2024?
Suppose you want to create a fresh start in 2024 – creating more clarity, and energy, and generating more interest and engagement. In that case, I doubt that providing the typical recap of 2023 is going to get your 2024 vision started off with a rousing round of applause.
Outlining the wins and losses; contextualizing the layoffs and reorgs and boiling it down to the “net net” of the year isn’t going to (and frankly rarely does) energize people.
Perhaps the most energizing thing about 2023 for many is that it’s nearly over.
Instead, consider shifting the events of 2023 into a story of your company’s “hero’s journey” and pull it together into a narrative with the company as the protagonist.
What prompted this idea was a recent article in Scientific American by Ben Rogers, Kurt Gray, and Mike Christian (10.30.23) that outlines the findings of their study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showing that people who frame their own life as a hero’s journey find more meaning in it.
So why not use the same technique to help people see their own role in your company’s hero’s journey?
Stories are what we use to contextualize events into a narrative of our experience – our lives, our history, our path forward.
Instead of reciting the events – the reorgs, layoffs, staffing shortages, exhaustion and burnout, continual turmoil in the ongoing WFH discussion – remote, hybrid, back-in-the-office, against the backdrop of weather-related disruptions and two wars, why not help them see their contributions, recognize their accomplishments, determination, behaviors, and resilience – and enable them to redefine their identity?
The article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-lead-a-meaningful-life-become-your-own-hero/ simplifies the 17 steps of the “hero’s journey” defined by mythologist Joseph Campbell into seven key elements to frame your story:
1. Protagonist – Referring to your company and how you define its character
2. Shift – What you set out to do in 2023
3. Quest – What you encountered along the way and found you needed to adjust your plans
4. Allies – Who did you find help from along the journey – employees, competitors, stakeholders, etc., who joined you on the journey. And what were their contributions (some of which you’d like to encourage more of the same in the future)
5. Challenge(s) – What was the totality of the quest that you faced – known and unknown complications
6. Transformation – What did you learn, what inner strengths did you discover that led to overcoming your challenge(s)
7. Legacy – And because of your transformation, what can you do now; what is the outcome of the outcome?
When people can see themselves as being part of your company’s heroic 2023 journey they will be able to:
See the meaning and their purpose
See where they can release outdated thinking, grudges, and shame or blame from misunderstandings
Leave the past behind
Share their learnings with others for their benefit
Find their courage and once again start taking reasonable risks
See the strategies of 2024 through fresh eyes and bring new ideas
Begin to Align Strategy, Execution, and Performance Expectations for 2024
If you’d like support in creating and sharing your company’s heroic journey for 2023 as a way to align strategy, execution, and performance expectations for 2024, respond in the comment section with “2024”. Or you can schedule a short conversation with me at https://www.sayredarling.com/book
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