We’re setting our business goals for 2015 in the next few weeks.  Trying to assess priorities, build on a successful 2014, and get the focus right in 2015.  As a matter of course we do a “looking back” exercise.  Rather similar to a personal review session, we try to honestly review the year gone by.

Being honest can be quite difficult.  It is very easy to deceive oneself, to not see the truth hidden amongst the noise, or avoid difficult issues and potential decisions.  Some things help.  Here is what has come to work for us as a business – and would work equally well in a personal review.

• Find useful facts and accept them.  You may think sales have increased on last year and your CRM may say they  have but have they?  Look in the accounts; what has been invoiced?!  Accept the facts and spend energy looking at what led to those facts rather than finding a nuanced point that explains one element of them.  Facts are often hard to come by and should be treasured.
• Look impersonally at the events of the year.  This isn’t an excercise in working out who did what.  It is “what happened”.  We’re not after a human interest story and we are certainly not looking for who to blame for things that didn’t happen.  We want to impersonally review the year.  Did what we planned to do, happen?  If not, what happened?  If it did, what should we learn?  If it was just luck then be honest.  If it was genius then be honest about that as well.
• Look for the trends and fish out the unusual.  Now, this is where you have to be very honest.  Is this year’s million pound deal a one-off or the start of a trend.  How are client numbers looking?  Are we retaining or not?  Are our customers happier with us this year than last?
• Look the whole way back.  What happened in January is more likely to have had an impact on the year’s performance than the new idea you had in November.  Understanding what did and did not work over the year and honestly accounting for it helps everyone share the lessons and embed them.

Looking back is very healthy – it embeds organisational learning and saves you trying out the same experiments each year.  It has to be done honestly.

Brendan

www.bowlandsolutions.com