Recently I heard someone say that we should throw 2020 into a dumpster, set fire to it, walk away and don’t look back as the dumpster explodes. I think that’s how a lot of us feel about this year. It’s been weird, full of uncertainty, revolving around a global pandemic and the US election. 

However, if we haven’t done so already, we should now be thinking about next year. And as much as we’d just like to see 2020 burnt to insignificant pieces, there are still learnings we can take from what happened.

I’ve always found that to plan ahead, thinking about where we have been and where we are, is a great starting point. In other words, what are the lessons we learned this year? What worked and what didn’t work and what did we learn from these experiences.

For example, I had a client who hired a salesman who resigned after less than 6 months. Why? They hadn’t thought through what type of person they needed and so the job description didn’t accurately reflect the role, the on boarding was poor and they incentivized the position incorrectly. They were good at what they did but they became unhappy and could easily find another job.  What a surprise they lost them – and how disruptive it was to peers, colleagues and customers. They now have  a rock in place for next year to get a hiring person, procedure and process in place as well on boarding.

Here are  5 things that I think will help you set up better for 2021.

1.What Have Been Our Learnings?

I find a whiteboard, flip chart or large sketch pad helps my thinking where I can just do a brain dump using a marker pen. If I use digital apps or type on my iPad it  restricts me to concentrating about the technology rather than focusing on the thinking process. Then I list all the things that worked and didn’t work.

“Mapping” all the learnings leads me to a small exercise. What do I want to STOP doing, CONTINUE doing and START doing? I list them.

2.Where Do We Want Be?

Now, what’s the plan for 2021? How do want to end at the end of the year. What’s a successful year look like. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) has a built in planning system and so we work this back from a 7-10 year Target, a 3 year Picture and and then our 1 year Plan. Then we break this Plan of what we will accomplish by the end of the year, into Goals to achieve the Plan. The Goals become Rocks that we must achieve on a quarterly basis. What gets scheduled gets done!

3.What Assumptions Do We Need To Make?

Given what we have just been through, we have learnt that forecasting is even tougher than it was, so we have to be smarter about our planning and I suggest using scenario planning. I have written on this specifically before (include link), and I like to plan for the worst  and the best possible scenarios. Then go through what we need to to do under both these scenarios for finance, people, operations, sales and marketing implications.

4.What Resources Do We Need?

With EOS, we use an Accountability Chart to help us do this. It’s baked into the EOS Operating System. So, have we got the right people in the right seats, because if we haven’t all all the best planning will go to waste as we won’t have the right resources to get it all done.

5.How Do Track Progress?

As Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” How true, because, if you can’t measure something, and know the results, you can’t possibly get better at it. Getting better is all about learning and adapting and so we close the loop and go back to the start of What Have Been Our Learnings?

But before doing so, how do we efficiently and comprehensively track progress? Luckily for us, EOS has thought about this. With the use of Rocks, mentioned above, and a creating a Scorecard we are constantly measuring progress on a weekly basis.

So, let’s finish strong this year by being having a great plan for 2021. Once we have that in place, we’ll feel a lot better about lighting the flame that will burn away the memories of 2020.

How have you planned for your better 2021? Share some best practices here…