I didn’t realize that weight loss would cost me so much. Not the meal plans (didn’t buy them), nor the gym membership (already had it), but the wardrobe change. 

When it came to my pants, especially, I just put a belt on it, which worked great, until it didn’t. There was no cinching my reduction in inching.

At some point, the belts don’t make sense. They become awkward.

Do you ever feel like things are getting a bit loose around you? It builds over time; an unfilled position gets covered with others pitching in; regularly scheduled meetings start being skipped by more staff; costs gradually grow; people fatigue on routine.

Typically, we throw a belt on it: Stretching coverage, meeting reminders and summaries, cutting an expense here or there, hosting a team event. All of them are fine within themselves, but they are belts. Eventually, we need to replace the wardrobe. 

It’s Time For A Fitting

If you and your team enter a year with a list of projects, and you have solid plans around those projects, and you can demonstrate to others what you will accomplish in the next year, you will likely be applauded for your good planning. 

It is misdirected applause.

Now is the time to step back and make sure that you are not planning forward with what is in front of you, but planning back from where you want to be. 

The immediate-important are all the activities in front of you to accomplish; the intentional-important are the mission critical objectives you must achieve in the coming year. They must receive the priority investment of your time, energy, ability and money.

The immediate-important must align/realign with the intentional-important; if the immediate does not serve the intentional, it must be reprioritized from necessary to nice-to-have. 

I’m walking through this with a company now - they have brilliantly realized that they are in a critical window to affect priority changes and that they cannot be distracted by shiny objects and good ideas. The intentional brings focus.

Hit it or miss it - and if you are not intentional about what matters most, you will miss it.

Looking Good and Feeling Good

Let’s take a look in the mirror.

What do lines of business need to master in the coming year?

What does IT need to master in its own growth or transformation?

What personnel changes do you need to accomplish what business is seeking from you?

What processes need to change to facilitate more effective work?

What platforms need to be updated, adopted, developed or implemented?

What current projects, once accomplished, will now fail to deliver the value that is required?

What belts should be discarded?

Answering this, and making wardrobe changes, not just cinches, give you the borders you need to focus on what matters and to say no to all other demands.

You will likely have around five major areas that direct your focus, with supporting activities for each. 

If you don’t step back in the present to look back from the future, you will confuse production for progress.

And that’s a loss no belt can ever hold up.