2025: some ambitions
No, they aren't 'move to the tropics'
Can I tell you my dream? It has to do with all the people working to make the world a better place: on regenerative economic models and carbon capture technologies and net zero policy approaches.
The dream is simple, but big:
What if they were all able to do that work well?
I've worked in a few different types of organisation – big, small, slow, scrappy, ancient, chaotic – and although symptoms vary, there's usually something getting in the team's way of doing their job.
Maybe things would be better if the CEO just ...wasn't. Or if it took less than two months to make a decision. Or if that one guy would have the kind of minor health incident that nevertheless causes him to reevaluate his life, retire early and spend more time with his family, thereby meaning that people can actually say things in meetings without being shouted at.
So, anyway, imagine.
Problems being solved, progress being made, smart people getting on with the work they've chosen to do and trained for.
Will it solve everything? Of course not. Is it an important piece of the puzzle? I think so.
If you know me in real life, you'll know that I hate a politics-rant that doesn't come with a plan. Give me a viable alternative and a roadmap to achieve it, please, and then we can complain about the state of democracy. So: what's my plan?
There are, I think, three sites of intervention for this.
- The whole organisation. Does the culture actually support what the organisation is trying to achieve? Or are people burnt out, disenchanted, scared to speak out, phoning it in? To change this is hard, but possible, once you know what you want to change and why.
- Teams. Do they have the help they need to work well together, or have they been shoved in a (breakout) room and left to get on with it? Are there differences of opinion that just don't feel reconcilable, escalations, trust issues? Again, solving this isn't rocket science, and we've known what helps for a while.
- Individuals. We're taught how to do our jobs (usually) but not how to create the environment for that job to effectively happen in. There's a lot a person can do to create a space where they can do great work, even in less-than-ideal circumstances, but again – and I do realise I'm a broken record here – we're mostly left to figure it out for ourselves.
My goal, then, eventually, is to get that knowledge into the hands of everyone who needs it.
What does that mean, practically? In the long term, some kind of social enterprise, a collective of people who believe the same, who see the ways that improving relationships and communication and collaboration could unlock so much potential that's already out there and who know how to help others to do that. Imagine, for instance, if we taught this stuff at school!
In the short term, baby steps towards that. I've rewritten this paragraph multiple times, and everything I write seems too small, or too individual, or the wrong thing, somehow. But: I start where I am; I do what I can. Here's what's first on the list, my priorities for 2025:
- Translate my experiences with teams and individuals into a framework that is understandable to others (I did this with organisations in 2024).
- Get stuck into a research project to understand which factors are the most critical in helping impact organisations maximise their ...impact.
- Pilot a training approach that gets that information into the hands of people who can use it.
What have I missed? Where else should I look? What would you, personally, like to hear about? Let me know.
But mostly, thank you for being here. Happy 2025, team x