I don’t mean to shock you in to action but it is:
- A little over 6 weeks to Christmas
- A little over 7 weeks to the start of a new calendar year
- A little over 7 weeks to the financial year half.
It’s always such an interesting time of year as the Melbourne Cup kick-starts the Christmas and party season of fun, frivolity and excitement. The Christmas shopping frenzy turns to the joys of the holiday season – hot sunny days, beach side action, time out with family (at least in the Southern Hemisphere and this is what I love now I live here).
For me, whilst I love the start of the party season, I also love this time of the year as one to sit, consolidate and re-plan. The next couple of weeks provide the perfect time to take myself on a coffee date, somewhere other than the office, to think through what has really been achieved this year and to revisit my long-term goals. This is the perfect time to change the dance, evolving as necessary, for the next 6 months. This is the perfect time to re-plan, re-prioritize and re-evaluate. This is the perfect time to choose what it is I want to do and to have fun developing a road map to make it happen.
Innovation in business is such a critical part of adapting to the change around us, of ensuring constant evolution. Change is constant, always has been and always will and yet many of us naturally sit still in the comfort of things going well.
You don’t have to make major changes. Small degree changes will make a big difference over time. Darren Hardy calls it “The Compound Effect” in his book with the same name. Painlessly install some new key internal disciplines; a team walking meeting rather than a weekly office meeting, an off site quarterly brain splurge day to capture new ideas, the development of a creativity room, the creation of new products and services to drive revenue or added value.
Innovation refers to the notion of doing something different not simply doing something better.
So in the spirit of the holiday season why not take yourself off on a date, relax in to it and give yourself the gift of time to reflect, review, re-plan and innovate.
Inspire. Connect. Succeed.
