The new year is around the corner and you are figuring out how to get your team fired up for the new year.

That’s great.  But before you dive into new year planning, take some time to look back and savor your accomplishments from 2025.

You can do this in just a few hours.  Look through your calendars.  Come up with the top three accomplishments your team had for every month of 2025.  What were the highlights?  Who were the heroes?  Celebrate these!  Ideally you can have a celebratory lunch or dinner to really appreciate all of your accomplishments.  Savor these for a few days.

Then – focus on 2026.

Set the three most important Strategic Goals that your team needs to accomplish in 2026.  Use the following guidelines.  If you already have the goals, use the guidelines to sharpen them up:

• Outcomes.  Set your goals as outcomes – results – not activities you want to complete.
• Specific & Measurable. This is the only way to know if you are on track.  If you have difficulty, try this book as a resource: Make Success Measurable.
• Aggressive.  If you want to get even more innovative, try setting Almost Impossible goals like they do at Google.  Learn more in this brief, free video.
• Relevant.  What are the three most important goals you can set that will advance your larger organizational goals – as well as the vision and mission.
• Time Bound.  Every goal must have a date.
• Outcome Milestones. Set at least four of these during the year to see if you are on track with your results – not your activities.
• SWOTs.  People like to reserve SWOTs for strategy, but you can use them for each goal.  What Strengths do you have that you can leverage to achieve the goal?  What Weaknesses do you need to develop in order to achieve the goal?  What Opportunities can you seize to help you accomplish the goal?  What Threats do you need to keep an eye on so you are not derailed with the goal?  This analysis can help you set your Action Plans.

Your review and savoring of 2025 will set a positive tone and build your team’s confidence.  This will act as a springboard to catapult you into setting and accomplishing your 2026 goals.  Good luck making a Mission Impact in 2026!

Note: There will be no Insights With Impact blog on December 30, 2025.  Enjoy savoring some time off!

Every leader loves it when their team performance is humming along nicely.

But, if this is always the case, you may be losing out on a great learning opportunity through “productive failure.” 

There are many goals that you really do not want a person or team to fail at – such as processing payroll on time or submitting a required report to a government agency.  And many of these goals are binary – you either get them done or not.

Other goals, however, have a performance range.  How big is our profit margin?  What are our quarterly sales numbers?  What is our Net Promoter Score?

Let’s say that you have been working hard on Net Promoter Score (customer loyalty) and your numbers are pretty good – but it would be great to get them higher.  Here is how you can use “productive failure” to learn and grow.

1.  Challenge Your Team to Set a Hard Goal.  Inspire your team to reach even higher and explain the payoffs for the team and the organization.

2.  Assure Them that Learning and Creativity are Paramount.  While achieving the goal is important, explain that the main thing is to try new ideas that you can learn from.

3.  Create a Safe-Fail Zone.  Tell the team – and keep reinforcing this – that this is a “safe-fail” zone in which they are empowered to try new ideas, even if they do not work 100%.

4.  Design and Implement New Ideas.  Enthusiastically implement your new plan and be sure to document the new process.

5.  Don’t Freak over Failure.  If you set the goal high enough, then it is likely your team failed.  You can acknowledge this – but remind the team that they had tried new, creative ideas – which was the main point.  This step is crucial, or your team may never try anything new again.

6.  Conduct an After Action Review.  With a focus on learning, review everything the team did and what you can do better the next time.  Celebrate the learning!  Check here for more on After Action Reviews.

Continuous improvement and growth is a serious competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced work environment.  Use “productive failure” to keep your team improving their Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Morris, S.  “To Help Your Team Learn, Set Them Up for Productive Failure,” Harvard Business Review online, November 6, 2024.

Way to go!  You are leading a change!

You are following all of the proper steps.  You have created a Sense of Urgency and you have a Guiding Coalition leading with you.

However, unbeknownst to you – there are forces of mediocrity trying to undermine your effort. There are people who would rather tolerate the problem you are trying to fix, than put in the energy to address it.

Is this happening to you?  Check out this Top Ten List of signs that your change project may be in trouble:

1.  A task force is being assigned to the problem.

2.  You’re being thanked for your time and effort.

3.  People doubt whether the organization (really) has a problem.

4.  You’re asked to respond to the grave concerns of unnamed critics.

5.  The specter of “legal issues” is being invoked.

6.  Your colleagues point out all the other problems that need to be solved.

7.  You keep hearing about a future state where the conditions for change will be much, much better.

8.  The timeline for action is growing short.

9.  Your colleagues think they can wait you out.

10.  You keep hearing, “we’ve already tried that.”

If you see some of these signs, then your change effort is in trouble!  Call your Guiding Coalition together and re-double your efforts of expressing the urgency for this change.  This is the stage of your process where fatigue is your biggest challenge.  Your persistence and continual communication of the problem, solution, and vision for the future is the antidote.

You and your Guiding Coalition need to mobilize!

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Frei, F. X. and Morriss, A.  “10 Signs Your Company Is Resistant to Change,” Harvard Business Review online, September 26, 2023.

One of my favorite authors, Adam Grant, wrote an excellent book on creativity called Originals.  You can check out my blog on his book here.

As far as creativity among teams goes, a recent article in Harvard Business Review article includes some excellent ideas for improved creativity.  Check these out:

Generate Lots of Ideas When Brainstorming.  This is very consistent with Adam Grant’s research.  Teams all too often fall in love a new idea at the beginning of a brainstorming session.  Instead, push yourselves to produce a large quantity of ideas over a period of multiple brainstorming sessions.  Then figure out which ones are worth testing.

Create Space for Failure.  Failure is part of the culture of innovation.  Start small and experiment.  Learn more about building “Minimal Viable Products” which you can test with lower risk at this link.  Fail Fast and Fail Forward.

Block “Creativity Time” on Your Calendars.  Too many people have calendars full of meetings every day.  There is no time to think creatively!  Be a role model by blocking chunks of time every week that you are free from meetings to explore new ideas.  Encourage your team to do the same.

Appreciate Problem-Finding.  Many bosses hate it when the team brings them problems.  Learn to embrace this and use the problems as opportunities for innovation.  Encourage your team to find things that are bothering clients or the staff.

Leaders need to better understand the creative process so they can support their teams and lead innovation.  Use these ideas to improve creativity and make even more of a Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Utley, J. & Klebahn, P.  “5 Ways to Boost Team Creativity,” Harvard Business Review online, March 28, 2023.

Landscape Analysis, Competitor Analysis, Benchmarking.  Organizations of all types carry out these activities from time to time.

Landscape Analysis is the broadest of these activities and can include both Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking.  It may also include a Needs Assessment, Stakeholder Input, and Environmental Data Collection – often looking at PESTLE aspects of the environment: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental.  The purpose of this analysis is to stay current on trends and identify possible shifts in the Landscape that may require a Strategic response.

Competitor Analysis is focused on an organization’s main competitors.  Corporations typically focus on competitors for similar products that they sell, and sometimes substitutes as well.  Nonprofits look at organizations which provide the same types of services, but also at the types of services their key donors fund.  They may also look at competitors for Staff, Board Members, and Volunteers.  This type of analysis is usually done more frequently than a full Landscape Analysis.  Many companies, for example, will monitor competitor prices in real time.

Benchmarking involves identifying and studying comparable organizations that are highly regarded and/or peers.  Organizations will typically seek to emulate the “best in class.”

It is a good idea to carry out all three of these activities, especially during a strategic planning process.  However, here are the ways that Benchmarking can be improved:

*Cast a wider net.  Look beyond key competitors and the most popular choices.  Scour the world to identify the organizations that are the most innovative in your industry.  Ask others in your same industry who they think are the unsung innovators.

*Don’t copy others.  If you do this, you will always be behind.  The best keep innovating.  See what you can learn about what others are doing.  Take their ideas and figure out how to make them even better.

*Look under the hood.  Look at details.  What is really making this organization so successful?  Look beyond price and product features.  What is the culture like?  How do they do their hiring?  What leadership principles are they following?  Much of innovation is due to excellent implementation.

Keep your eyes open.  Once upon at time Circuit City was thought to be one of the best companies in the world.  They were heralded in the book, Good to Great – but now no longer exist.  One of their former CEOs wrote a book called Good to Great to Gone – that tells the story of how the Circuit City leaders ignored the competitive environment after he had left the company.

Change is coming.  We need to stay aware and innovative in order to make the best Mission Impact possible.

The pandemic taught us a lot about working virtually.  Some things can actually be done better online – like Brainstorming.

The opportunity to be fully anonymous with idea generation and evaluation is one of the things I like best about virtual brainstorming.  It also helps to level the playing field between introverts and extroverts, as well as optimists and pessimists.

Following are some ideas from a recent article in Harvard Business Review on how you can make virtual Brainstorming work well:

PreWork: Prior to any in person or online brainstorming session, make sure that everyone is given time to think of ideas that they want to share.  Some people call this “brain writing.” It allows introverts, deep thinkers, and pessimists the process time they need.

Step One: Pick a Collaboration Tool.  Examples: Google Forms allows for anonymous text-based entries to questions.  Mural and Jamboard both offer opportunities for synchronous collaboration.  Check these out to see what would work best for you.

Step Two:  Generate and Organize Ideas.  Ideas can be generated either before or during a synchronous meeting.  This HBR article encourages people to focus on “quality” of ideas versus “quantity.”  Adam Grant, in his book, Originals – suggests the opposite.  I agree with Grant.  Self-censoring “quality” can shut people down.  Encourage lots of ideas – even contradictory ideas from the same person.

Grant also encourages multiple brainstorming sessions before you start evaluating ideas.  I am also a big fan of this approach.  Creativity cannot be scheduled.

Step Three:  Evaluate.  Make sure you have established your specific criteria parameters ahead of time.  Even when you do this, evaluation is tricky.  By definition, you are trying to figure out the best new creative idea.  You will not be “sure” that it will work.  You can use “polls” or other tools to identify the top ideas – based on the opinion of the group.

Step Four:  Discuss Shortlisted Ideas.  It is best if evaluative comments from the group are shared anonymously so things don’t get too personal.

Bonus: Experiment.  The HBR article did not include this idea, but I encourage you to borrow from the Lean Startup community and test out a couple of your brainstormed ideas prior to final adoption.  There are ways to experiment with small versions of your idea before investing in one of them big time.  Check out this blog for more info.

Following these guidelines can help you lead even more effective Brainstorming in the online world.  If you end up missing the social aspects of getting together, then schedule an offsite just for that purpose!

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Tsipursky, G. “Why Virtual Brainstorming is Better for Innovation,” Harvard Business Review online, February 3, 2022.

How can organizations prepare themselves to be ready to make sudden changes necessitated by outside factors?  That is the topic of a recent article in Harvard Business Review by consultants from Bain & Company.  In the article they discuss nine traits and abilities organizations need to develop to be good at change:

1.  Purpose.  Creates a sense of belonging that guides decisions and inspires action.

2.  Direction.  Translates purpose into a plan; where you are going and how to get there.

3.  Connection.  Creates networks of influencers and fans.

4.  Capacity.  Allows the organization to absorb more change.

5.  Choreography.  Ability to change priorities and sequencing of action.

6.  Scaling.  Capacity to amplify impact.

7.  Development.  Creates learning and more capability to change.

8.  Action.  A bias for action and a can-do mindset.

9.  Flexibility.  Allows you to stay out in front of change.

Unfortunately, they don’t explain much about which abilities are most important.  (Perhaps you have to hire Bain as a consultant to find out.)  But, I would put my money on Purpose and Flexibility.

If you and those you work with have a clear, deep commitment to Purpose as your priority, then – combined with Flexibility – I think it would allow you to “pivot” more quickly to whatever means would best meet your purpose.

The past is littered with organizations that could not change – Kodak, Circuit City, many more – pick your favorite example.  The capacity and openness to change has perhaps never been more important.  How can you better develop these skills and abilities for your organization?

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Michels, D. & Murphy, K., “How Good is Your Company at Change,” Harvard Business Review, July – August 2021.

The answer, of course, is that you need to give people time away from their current projects to do this.  And it is not a popular answer.

This brings up the whole issue of “slack” – essentially, extra time than what is needed for every person to work 100% of the time on their main job.

One way people think about this is the “permanent slack” in which companies like Google give their employees up to 20% of their time to work on “side projects” which could become their next breakthrough product (read more here).

But you don’t need to go that far – you can introduce “temporary slack” from time to time for special projects.  If you want a group to work on a new innovative project that is outside their regular work, then intentionally grant them time to slow down on other projects.

Slack is vital for innovation and progress.  Anyone who has gone rock climbing knows that as you want to climb higher you need to ask your partner on the ground who is controlling your safety rope to “give me some slack” (read more here).

You can’t climb mountains without slack and you are less likely to create new innovative ideas without it either.

And by the way, the financial corollary for slack is budgeting R&D funds for running experiments on some of your new innovative ideas (read more here).

Great leadership is often about making wise tradeoffs.  Sometimes it may the tradeoff of slowing down current production a bit so you can invent your next great idea that will make even more of a Mission Impact.

Once upon a time I knew a guy who, everytime I would ask:

“Hey, how are you doing?”  He would answer:

“Not too bad.”

Just think about that.  I’m sure he didn’t really mean that things were bad, but they weren’t SO BAD that he was going to be terribly upset about it.  But then again . . .

How many things in your organization are “okay, fine, not too bad?”  And you are just putting up with it – sleepwalking past it every day.

Is that good enough for you???

What about “amazing?”  Or “extraordinary.”  Or one of my brother Pat’s favorites, “SuperFantastic?”

Try this at your next staff meeting.  Think about an area of your operation which is “okay,” but if it was really great, it would make a big difference.  Then reference that to your team and ask them:

“If we could really have it any way we wanted it, what would amazing look like.”  Dream big.  And once you get some momentum around it, ask:

“What are two or three new things we can try to make this aspect of our organization amazing?”

Maybe not every aspect of your organization can be extraordinary.  But then again, who knows?  And wouldn’t that be cool if you could make something at least much better if not all the way to amazing?

That would be not too bad, indeed.

When reentering the atmosphere, astronauts experience a period of turbulence where there is great suspense, extreme heat, interrupted communication, and everything happens at remarkable speed.  We should expect to undergo a threshold of discomfort as we re-familiarize ourselves with our old surroundings and routines.

During quarantine, many of us working from home saw our roles in the homefront amplified and the demands of the moment required us to multitask like never before. The line between personal responsibilities and professional ones blurred. Transitioning from virtual staff meetings to homeschooling, caregiving and then back to other work engagements became the new normal.

Juggling and blending our responsibilities has been exhausting. But along the way, we’ve developed new routines, stayed connected with friends, enjoyed time with the family, and exercised.  We picked up new hobbies and perhaps found that our time previously spent commuting is now dedicated to more fulfilling activities. We missed going to the office, but now we are vested in this new reality and you might struggle with going back.

Transitioning back to the office can be not only draining, but also treacherous because of the emotional landmines that we may encounter.

To ease into this period of workplace reentry, here is some advice.

Avoid comparing then to now. Understand that your work environment will not be the way it used to be. Don’t spend your energy trying to force past routines into the present environment. Instead, focus on the opportunities and benefits of this new setting, embrace the differences and leverage the moment to innovate and introduce positive change.

Be empathic. Be mindful that those around you are experiencing the same crisis but in different ways. They are adapting and may unconsciously display new behaviors or attitudes.

Calibrate your goals. In a dynamic environment, it is important to revisit and adjust your priorities and goals. Doing so will keep you focused and productive in the current context. Keep in perspective that your expectations of teamwork and collaboration, as well as team spirit will not be the same, and it may impact your efficiency and productivity.

Voice your concerns. If you are confronted with job requirements that put you in a risky or vulnerable position, speak up. All levels of the organization are grappling with the crisis, and sometimes decisions and actions may inadvertently put team members in compromising situations. The environment is prone to unintended consequences and your perspective can bring them a welcome early warning signal.

Stay proactive. Uncertainty and ambiguity grow if you stand still. Unproductive worry can be paralyzing. Being proactive will give you a sense of agency and control about the way forward. It will keep you agile and responsive to address emerging changes and most importantly, it will allow you to influence the character of the future rather than waiting for it.

We adjusted before and we will adjust again! Take Care, Be Safe, and Good Luck with Re-entry.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Smith Brain Trust, July 13, 2020.