This week, Within People partners Nikki de Vet (from our UK/Europe Hub) and Kendall Clifton-Short (for our North American Hub) join Anique Coffee. Together, they reflect on what has worked well for leaders in 2022 and consider how leaders can bring intention into their growth for 2023 and beyond. Listen now for four simple steps you can take to set your intention for growth in the year ahead.

Learn more about Within People and the work we do here.

Hi ladies, are you excited to Hello

Podcast?

Yes.

Very excited.

I'm excited too Welcome to Re-Imagining Work from Within.

I'm smiling ear to ear because I'm joined by two colleagues, two fellow

within partners, Kendall Clifton short in Bozeman, Montana, and Nikki de

Vet in France eating her baguettes.

How are you both say hello?

Hello?

Hi.

. Hi, . Banjo.

. Nikki de Vet: Actually, I think.

Hey, Anique how are you?

Great to have you both here.

Good.

Doing really well.

So happy to be kind of closing out our podcasting, our first year of

podcasting with the two of you.

Really excited to have this conversation with you today.

We're gonna be talking about how to bring intention to your

growth in 2023 and beyond.

And really for us, this content is quite evergreen.

It's really about growing with intention, growing in a meaningful way for you

and your people, which could be true in a, a quarter of a year, or the

kickoff of a year or the end of a year.

So we happen to be now.

December, 2022, thinking a lot about our 2023 strategy and supporting our clients

to think about their 2023 growth strategy.

So we've been talking a lot about bringing attention to our

growth, and the idea today is to.

Kind of go through the steps in which we do that, but give the two of you a chance

to really share some of your experience as facilitating and coaching some of

these conversations, and perhaps even bring in some of the client stories of,

of how you've supported the leaders in our community to grow with intention.

Sound good?

Let's do it.

All

right.

Yeah.

Sounds great.

And congrats on the year of

podcasting.

Well done us.

That's exciting.

Yes.

Yeah.

Awesome.

It's been a fun year.

A fun year.

Mm-hmm.

And I feel we've gotten almost all the voices across the partnership on the pod,

which has been a big goal of mine to make sure we hear from all of of our corners of

the world of how we're supporting leaders.

So excited to have the two of you.

Kendall Clifton-Short: It's gonna be great.

Go sneak us in quickly before the end of the year.

. Nikki de Vet: Yeah.

Who didn't, who didn't we hear from yet?

Let's capture those . Yeah.

Well we've got, I mean, Kendall, you've, it's not out yet, but

you've just done a podcast from your event last week in Bozeman.

Right?

Right.

Yeah.

That's exciting.

I feel like, oh, I'm going from no podcasting to like podcasting all the

time, so that's quite exciting for me.

Yeah, and we actually did one at the beginning, Kendall

on February and from Denver.

After at Denver, then, yeah, that was great.

Yeah.

Good.

All right, so Nicki, this is your first time on the pod though, right?

Yes.

Apart from that, I read out one of our, of my blog

post, like right narrated

good blog post, and we have another recording coming up

in the next couple of weeks as well.

Hey, Nick, so it's That's right.

Central.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love it.

Exciting.

Okay, cool.

Well, let's talk about our topic of today, how to bring intention

to your growth in 2023 and beyond.

And we're really kind of tying this to a recent blog post that we put

out, which kind of went through a four step process of how we do that

with the leaders in our community.

And so I thought, we've got the blog, let's talk about how we

actually do that and bring some storytelling to it from the two of.

So I'll go kind of go through the steps and I've got some questions to

ask you that kind of go along with each step, and I'd love to hear your

stories from your corners of the world.

So step one is all about reflection.

So the looking back and the learning from what you've been

through and what you've done.

So maybe I, we could hear from Kendall first and we'll hear from both of

you and kind of switch back and forth, but what are some of the ways

that you support leaders to reflect.

In that, what might be some of the questions you'd ask them to help

them reflect, to look back and learn?

Well, I think there's also another question of like,

why would we look back and learn, right?

That we really need to understand before we can dive in.

And I think the.

You know, the, the definition of insanity is continuing to do what we've always been

doing and expecting a different result.

So reflection is really the key to inform or shape how you might

choose to stop doing some things or, or start doing them differently.

So I think there's a.

A bunch of creative ways that you can do this.

Really, the world is your oyster in terms of like how, how crazy and how aligned

with sort of who you are as a company.

Do you wanna be, there's a local company in town here that is all

about the outdoors and they do such a fabulous job of building outdoor

narrative into everything they do.

When people have roles, then they're sort of.

Travelers or their, you know route finders, et cetera.

And so I think, you know, you, you can find a bunch of beautiful metaphors

or ways to do your reflection in, in a way that's really meaningful to your.

Organization.

So for them it might be like, okay, let's go back over the map of where

we've been over the last year and really pick out some highlights of you know,

what happened at different points of the journey and what would we, what is there

for us to, to, to learn and grow from.

And what, what were the.

Things we wanna celebrate and what, what are the things that like, actually we

wanna forget, but have rich learning before we forget them . So that we can

really start to think about, well, what is worth continuing to do and continuing

to bring with us into the future?

What is something that we like the essence of?

Perhaps, perhaps we didn't nail it, so we might wanna do it slightly differently,

and what can we just let, let go of?

Because it's really not.

Great.

I love that idea of bringing in like the personality of your company

of like, if you're that kind of outdoor company, bring in some of

that nuance of, and the metaphor of it, and using that as a reflection.

I really like that.

What about you, Nikki?

What are some ways you support leaders in reflecting and looking back and learning?

Yeah, it's

such a great question.

I think similarly to Kendall, I feel what is so important are the conditions in

which you are doing the reflecting in.

So what kind of environment do we really need to create for our organization to,

to be able to have that reflection moment?

And I think to start with, at the, at the very basic level,

it's like, let's carve out a time.

Let's make this something that is important to us and

therefore we step into doing it.

Like I.

Part.

Part of why maybe many leaders or many organizations don't get around to do

it, especially at the end of a year or a quarter, is because it's just

so busy and then you forget, right?

So how do we intentionally carve out the time to step into reflection?

and it can be as easy as just have some powerful questions.

I think as Kendall is speaking to, like for instance, what are you most

proud of in the last, if you think about the last year, what are you, what

have you been most proud of or what has been blocking you or what has been

stopping you from achieving some of the, the goals or the targets or the

vision that you set out for the year?

A question that I really like as well is what has this last year felt like?

Like what did it feel like to you?

Like was it something that was super joyful or was it a game of two halves

and the first year, half of the year felt really great and awesome and

felt super in flow, but the, the second half of the year actually,

we were completely out of alignment.

And really get people like, rather than just thinking, have we hit those goals?

And you know, what are the ways that we take forward?

Like what has it really felt like to us as an experience of running this

business, of growing in our organization?

The other thing I'd add is when we say strategic planning,

we often think, oh, get, get the leaders around the boardroom and maybe with the

whiteboard, a poster if you do work with within and you know, they're the people

who need to have this conversation.

But really what I'm hearing Nikki saying, and what I see

too, is there's so much power in.

, everyone having some version of this conversation and really tapping into

what's been the experience for them and what would they like to then

their experience moving forward being.

And I think you can do, like if you're a small organization that

feels like totally manageable and I.

I'm really proud of lots of local businesses in Bozeman who

have like carved out K two days.

At the end of the year, we're gonna get together and do this.

I think you can also do it really creatively when you're a more hybrid

organization or a remote organization.

I mean, look at, look at us for example.

We, we've had sort of replicated the type of conversation we wanted

to have, but brought our own flavor as three different hubs and then

are finding ways to then sort of.

The relevant pieces of that organization.

Oh, sorry, , relevant pieces of that conversation with

everyone across the organization.

So I also think like, how can we as leaders really create an opportunity

for everybody in the, in an appropriate way in a, an, in a meaningful sort.

Experience, have this conversation because if we're not tapping into what the

experience of working at this organization has been like for everybody, then we're

really missing a massive opportunity to get them engaged and be really intentional

about what type of experience we're trying to create for them moving forward too.

Hmm.

That's a great build.

And even to take that a step further, we often do this with leadership

teams, but it doesn't mean you can't do it as an individual leader as.

and really kind of put that personal lens on it.

Like how have I grown as a leader this year?

What have I been most proud of in the way that I've led?

So there's ways to create team alignment, but also just

self-learning and self alignment too.

Right.

Great.

Okay.

That's step one.

Step two is really all about reconnecting to the why.

So let's start by just saying and hearing from the two of you, what's the importance

of reconnecting to the why you want to.

Yeah.

When you say why I immediately go to purpose, like why are we here at the

highest, at the highest contact level?

Like why is our organization in business, why am I leading this team?

Like whatever level of purpose that, that you connect to.

And I think it's when you connect to the why, whether it's your personal

why or your organizational purpose, you go straight to the heart of

what is important to you and what is important to your organization.

Like if you.

. If you think about the work that we do around purpose,

like it's so rooted in impact.

So it goes directly to the impact that you wanna make as an organization and

therefore like if you wanna grow, like should be technically in service of

that impact that you're looking to make.

So I feel that whenever.

We speak to leaders around this, it's like, how do you use your purpose or

how do you use your why as a reason to gather people around and therefore

help them understand help your team understand like why they're here as well.

What their connection to their, their own connection to the

purposes, and therefore how and why we're all gonna grow this organiz.

Yeah.

I think also to bring it down a slightly lot, one step down from that

too, you know, the nature of strategic planning or thinking about how we

wanna grow or what we wanna achieve in some next defined time period.

Whether that's, like you said, a month, six months, you know, a year, five years.

There, there's an element of change there.

Like by definition, what do we want to stop doing and start doing and, and

where I'll be trying to get ourself and what is that going to ask of us?

And I think that.

Often it's easy for us as leaders to be really connected to that.

Why, especially when we have the privilege of sitting sort of high

up the hierarchy of an organization and, and everything we do is really

in the context of what is gonna drive that impact we're trying to achieve.

It's easier for people beneath us to feel less connected to that why and so,

and just feel like, oh, another thing we're being asked to do more change.

More change, more change.

So I think it's really important.

For us to really help our people connect like we are doing this

because of, we want to get to that.

Like it's not just me asking you to do something different for the sake of it.

It's very intentional.

We're trying to get here because of we're trying to deliver this impact and

this is what that's gonna take of us.

So this is what it's gonna ask of you.

And if I feel really connected, like Nikki's saying to like, of course, If

that's the thing that's going to move the needle in delivering the impact

that I am invested in delivering, I'm on board like, great, yep.

Let, let's go.

Whereas if I feel quite like, oh, it's just another thing I'm being asked to

do and, and we haven't taken the time to draw the connection to that with the

impact that people are looking for from their work, then it's a much bigger hill.

We're asking people to climb and it's a.

Different experience that they're having of the change process

within an organization too.

Alright, thanks Kendall.

Let's move on to step three, which is all about vision.

Defining the outcomes that you wanna see and setting the

intention for how you want to grow.

So the question I have for you here is, how might you help a leader create

an inspiring vision for the future?

Who wants to.

Yes.

Happy to start.

How might we help leaders do this?

Yes.

Like this is the fun part to me because this is where you can

get so creative if you want.

And really depending on what the organization is like and their op,

their appetite to step into different ways of, of working and creating.

You can get as creative and goofy as you like.

An important thing I think to really hone in on first is like, what is the

timeline of our vision going to be, right?

If we're gonna vision for the future are we just thinking the year ahead?

Are we thinking three years ahead?

Are we thinking five or 10 years ahead?

You know, what's, what's that kind of You know, appetite like that the leader has.

And I think it really also depends yeah, what they, what

they wanna achieve with it, right?

Like often we work with leaders that are really wanting to focus

on a, on a vision for growth.

And really looking at growth like through.

Through a holistic lens.

So how can we make sure that the growth becomes not just more and

more and better and bigger, right?

But also takes in counter people and the culture that we're looking to create

here and the impact for that we serve.

And then it's all about like, how are we going to create that?

How are we gonna create that picture of the future?

Like we very much see the vision as an exciting picture of the future.

And what kind of conditions are we going to do the visioning

exercise in, so to speak?

So something we did with one of our clients in London this was during

summer actually, and it's a, a recruitment and executive search

firm in the sustainability space We.

Thir 40 actually of their people together in one in one big

room and created an entire day.

Allowed them to really dream big and dream into the future for them.

The time horizon was five years from now, so it was 2027.

And what does our organization look and feel like when it comes to the impact

that we're having on our community?

Like how are we organized and set up for success to really drive

the results that we wanna see?

And therefore, what does that mean our culture needs to

be, to be able to deliver on.

. And it was not just like involving the, the top, top leaders.

It was inviting people from around their business, which is currently operating

in like four different markets globally.

And really everyone like getting that a big group of people involved

with different voices, like from different business parts of their

business, really hearing what.

Say about what they would like the future of this organization to be?

Yeah, to me that's one of the most joyful aspects of our work.

Really get people creative and thinking and outside of their comfort zone, out of

their day job in a different environment.

Like, you can go nuts with magazine sharpies, like Play-Doh, Lego, like

you name it, and you can bring it in.

And that's a whole heap of fun.

Love that.

Yeah, I love what you are sharing, Nikki.

I think there's two parts that you've mentioned, like how do we create the

conditions for people to even have this sort of conversation or, or

move through this type of thinking exercise and what is the sort of tool

that we use to get them thinking and really stretching their thinking?

And so I, I mean, I've done this, I've taken people on a hike and then

like had them sitting at the top of a mountain looking over Boze.

You know, really get, we really need to pull people out of the day to

day and get them thinking bigger.

So what's gonna enable them to do that?

Sometimes it's space, sometimes it's a completely ch different

change of environment.

Sometimes it's a, a, a totally new way to look at things like, go to an

art exhibition, like, ha have a really immersive experience and then have this

type of powerful conversation using what you just experienced as an anchor.

I remember Jeff and I doing this work with.

Company in Boulder in Colorado too, and we just had, it was a brewery,

and so we had them go and find.

Things in the environment that represented what some of the picture that they saw,

and that it's such a fun way to sort of tap into what different people bring.

That there were skis on the table.

There was a, a glass beaker on the table and all.

I've done it in Bozeman with another company.

There was a sprinkler on the table.

Right?

And so it's really just like, what, what can we find that starts to unlock

you know, what we wanna see in our future so that we can start moving.

Towards it.

But I think let's be very clear that there's two parts.

How do we create the conditions for people to have this type of conversation

and then how do we really stretch them?

Mm-hmm.

to, to get, have a lot of fun, really.

I mean, I'm pretty partial also to a meditation or a sort of, Visualization

activity that we would lead as the way to get them into a different frame of mind,

and then anything that gets people up and moving and active and having to go on a

treasure hunt and find things that sort of represent what they can find, see in

the future, is a really fun way to bring something that can be very like, well,

let's get our Excel spreadsheet out.

It's like, no, let's not do that.

Let's go and have a lot of fun with.

I love that.

And I, I really like the, the scavenger hunt around the office because then that

beaker becomes an anchor for that moment when they did that vision with you.

And then they see this inanimate object, a beaker, and it reminds them like,

oh, that's a connection to our vision.

I've done that with a few clients and it's really nice to have that experience.

Great.

And I

think you can use powerful exercises and anchors too to

help unlock why we need to be doing this.

I remember.

Building, like having my clients all stand in a circle and like we threw a

ball of wool around the room to sort of understand who needed to be connected to

each other as the precursor of like, okay, so if this is the sort of connection.

Web that we're trying to build in 2025 or whenever the future is.

Now let's really start to think about who we need to be, what needs to be

present in our culture and stuff.

So you can get really creative priming them for why they need this.

You can get really creative doing the exercise.

You can get really creative, helping them step out of the day to day.

Yeah.

I love a good visualization as well, and I think the visualization is such

a good way of really stretch them.

What you're linking to what you were saying Kendall, like to

really go like, what is different?

Like if it's five years from now, what is different?

And often that's such a question or like a, like a nudge that we need

to give when we work with leaders.

It's like, it's not now, it's.

Different from now, what do you see in five years time?

And really try to kind of push them, because sometimes, you know, people

forget that what they're actually visioning about is in the future and

it's not describing the current state.

So like that kind of little nudge around.

Okay, but how is that different?

And why is that, why is that important that it, that it's different in that way?

And our visualization is a great way of doing.

, Kendall Clifton-Short: and

really powerful tool If you have.

I wouldn't say privilege, but the added challenge of doing

this in a hybrid environment.

So, you know, we are sort of talking about things that are very tangible

and in the moment, and we can't hike up a mountain unless we're all together.

We can't go on a scavenger hunt around the office unless we're together.

But your.

A shared visualization, no matter where you are, anywhere in the world, can be

a really powerful shared experience.

And then, you know, your home office where, so you can have everyone

going and finding something in their office and sort of bringing that

sort of cultural flavor or personal flavor into the conversation too.

So it, there's definitely ways you can do this in a really powerful

and meaningful way if you don't have the luxury of all being in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those are some great tips for our leaders that have hybrid or remote teams.

I like that a lot.

Great.

Okay, so in step three, we have the vision, which

is sort of defining what we want things to look like at a set amount

of time, but we also have intention.

So what is an intention for growth?

Maybe we could start there, and how might you help a leader

set an attention for growth?

, what's an intention for growth?

Let's start

there.

. Well, I think, I think it's the being that that is the partner to the doing.

Right?

I think we, we work with lots of leaders who have fallen out

of love with their business.

They, they totally believe it.

The impact is still profound in what they wanna be doing in the

world, but the experience of doing it is not no longer joyful.

Right.

And so sometimes to Nikki's point before, it's not just about more, more, more,

it's about re-imagining the experience.

, but we can't do that if we're so focused on the doing, doing, doing.

Right.

So it's, it's really tapping into what would be like this to feel

like, and sometimes it's helpful to think about what it has felt like

and if we want that to be different.

You know, sometimes you don't need to do that.

It's just really like, how would we like this to feel moving forward?

And so the more we can counter, like how do we want it to feel, that's

gonna then influence what we wanna do.

If we want.

We, I, we did this work with this awesome company in Canada last year

where we really explored what had growth felt like previously, and that was.

Being dragged behind a galloping horse, right?

And so when we just stopped and paused and said, okay, what would we

like it to feel like moving forward?

Well, we would like it to feel like we were gracefully riding a unicorn

in a beautiful forest, right?

So, so radically different experience, but that was such a powerful anchor

to shape every single decision.

that was then, okay.

No, we're not doing any more sprints, right?

Because that's the horse dragging us along.

Sort of at, at its mercy where what we're going to do is slow everything down.

That doesn't mean that we need to necessarily change our impact goals.

It means that we need to approach them with a radically different mindset.

And so it can be a creative constraint.

It can also be a.

Creative Unlocker because we now have this really powerful intention

that we're trying to bring into the experience of the doing, and that then

unlocks powerful questions for us.

Like, well, if that's what I need, if that's what I'm looking to experience,

or if that's what I would love.

To, to be creating as an experience for my people.

What's that asking of me?

Who do I need to be as well as, what do I need to be doing?

And so that really powerful partner to the doing, which is the being.

Yeah, I completely echo what, what Kendall just said.

I think it's the, the intention is the energy that you wanna bring to it, right?

So what is the, what is the energy and the experience of what, what

growth is going to be like for us?

And the, the key word here, B as, as Kendall already said, and.

If we set this intention together, how do we hold that intention

throughout, throughout the year, right?

How can we make sure that we have an anchor for it, for instance, or maybe

it's a beautiful phrase like gracefully writing the unicorn together, , something

that people can really connect to, you know, so that you can also start to

use it and it can become part of your language and your vocabulary, right?

So then when you go through the year and your team feels stuck or.

You know, you might be running at a pace where you go a million

miles an hour and it's really not the energy you wanna bring to it.

Like, can be a great reminder like, Hey team, let's reconnect to this.

What do we need to reconnect to this energy?

You know, what do we need as individuals?

What do we need as a team?

How can we bring it back to that?

Yeah, and it serves as a, as a great way of keeping the right sort of

flow and pace throughout the year.

Love that.

Yeah.

The anchor for leaders is really helpful, isn't it?

It's like Anchor or even maybe like a filtering system.

Like does it feel like we're still gracefully riding?

Okay, something needs to change.

I like that one a lot.

And it

become, I love what you're saying there too, Anika, and

it becomes not just the, the anchor for leaders, but you know, I've seen often

leaders put that out in, in the open and say, Hey, this is our intention.

Like collectively, is this what we want the experience of work to be like?

Yes, of course.

Who doesn't want to be gracefully riding along on a unicorn together?

You know, people, you all have.

The opportunity to call us when we are doing things in a way that is going to

prevent this from being the experience like this is not just me saying like,

okay, this is my wish and like good luck.

It's, it's really an invitation for all of you to be the light or be the

torch that sort of is shown up and say to, to say, hold on a minute, , what

can we just revisit or get curious about why we might do it this way?

Because is this not going to.

To having us experience being dragged by the horse.

What if we challenged ourself to find a new way, which would

still unlock the graceful riding?

So yeah, I think it can be really powerful for leaders, obviously, and it

can help them fall in love, back in love with the business that they're owning.

But I think it can also be a really powerful rally cry, if you like,

for them to bring all their people.

Yeah.

Love that.

Absolutely.

Yeah, love that too.

And that sort of also reminded me like the power of setting an intention, right?

Also as an individual, like if you think about like, how would I, how would I

personally let this like next three months to feel, you know, or this month even?

What is the intention I'm holding for that?

Like how can I bring myself back to that?

Like when it comes to personal growth, Really trying to manage your own

energy, setting the right boundaries for yourself so you can really like

go after the vision that you've set with the rest of your organization.

I find it a really powerful tool to work with, like setting intention for

teams, for organizations, for yourself.

Yeah.

It can really help you tap into those

sort of qualities in yourself that.

Sort of pop out immediately, like, oh, you know, maybe if this is my intention,

what I'm gonna need to bring to the next three months is a ton of curiosity.

And that's gonna be a stretch for me because maybe it's not the thing that

I reach for when things get tough.

So I think it can really help you as a leader step into bringing the

things that like aren't your first response so that you can sort.

Get, build a stronger muscle around, well what's, what's really, what's

it really gonna take here for me as the leader of this organization or

for this as an individual so that I can support my people to experience

and, and contribute to us having this thing that we've decided we want.

Love that.

. Okay, let's keep moving.

So we've done step one, which is reflection.

Step two, reconnecting to the why.

Step three, setting the vision, intention.

And step four is really the how.

How are we gonna create the change?

How are we gonna do the doing?

If the intention is the B, now it's time to actually step into the how.

So the question I've got for you here are, what are some of the

ways you've brought the vision and intention to life with leaders?

, how have you really built out the how for them or with them?

Well, I think there's lots of creative ways to do this.

Many organizations already do this bit quite well, . I think for me it's

always how can we stop telling people what they should do and start inviting

people into shaping what we see as.

The, the first step or the first experiment we wanna have in service

of delivering on these outcomes.

So I think once you have set that, once you have that clarity, really the next

step is, is bringing your people around it so that they can then step into aligning

on how they would like to contribute or, or the opportunity that they.

For them as a team lead or as a department or, you know,

depending on the organization.

But I think for me, h how are we gonna do this?

We're gonna put that question out to our people and we're gonna crowdsource what

they think is going to be, and then debate like what comes up and, and sort of get

all collectively get on the same bus.

But, but we, we stop thinking that we need to tell them how we do it and we start

inviting them to, to co-create that with.

What, like, yeah.

Loved what what you just said, Kendall.

I feel totally, this is the moment where you involve your people and really it's

an opportunity to empower them, right?

And really let them step into the power and tap into their

wisdom that they hold because.

We are a big fan of like, obviously involved the people that are impacted

by the decisions that you're making.

And if you set a vision in a way, it's kind of making a decision of

the direction that you're going and like how you're gonna get there.

Your people are gonna do that for you as leaders, right?

Like your teams are going drive that.

So to me it's just a no brainer that they have to have a say in, in how you might

go about that and really give them some autonomy and freedom to, to play with.

And again, like there's different ways of going about it because it's almost

start to sound when you start to plan, it almost becomes a strategy, right?

Like, so if this is our vision, what is our strategy for getting there?

And there's creative ways you can do that as well.

Like if you think about like your vision being some sort of timeline

into the future, like can you put in some lily pads that are really

going to be your milestones?

What are going to be the key on lockers, for instance, without going into masses

of detail and helping people understand like, okay, if this is a five year

vision, where are we after year one?

Where are, where are we after year two?

And then.

to be able to get there.

What are the li what are the things that we really need to group around as a team?

What are, what is really going to be important?

And alongside that, I think to also explore what are the things that might be

stopping us or like standing in our way.

You know, what are our blockers or what can we anticipate the blockers

might be that we come across So we yeah, are prepared for those

and how might we overcome them?

I always find very interesting in terms of the convers.

I think there's something really energizing when you

elevate a strategic plan from like, oh, we need to do X, y, and Z times

27, to like, what are the three key shifts we're looking to make, which is

really what Nikki's speaking to as well.

Like how do we get clear on like what the first one or two steps are and not be too

attached to like planning out steps four and five because we really won't know.

Where, where exactly we are, what new things have arisen, what things we

smashed out of the park in three months that we thought were gonna take a year,

and what things that we still slogging away at after a year, even though we

thought it was gonna be three months.

So I think how can you help people get really clear on the first couple

of steps and how do you help them elevate like the three key shifts we're

trying to make here at X, Y, and Z.

So rather than like, okay, and here's your list of 27 things.

Yeah, I

love that candle and like especially because you

dunno what the future holds, right?

It's such an unknown and a plan never goes to

plan.

So , if you

completely like plan it out to the minutia yeah, you

also get quite a shock if you don't need to pivot and you don't have the

flexibility and agility to do that.

So.

Absolutely.

And then there's that creative element too, like.

, what is the way that we wanna package this that feels very of us?

So to go back to the outdoor company, like what's, what's the

next waypoint that we need to get to?

Or what's the next, you know, can on the, on the pathway that we're trying to

get to, like really just sort of helping people feel connected to this process

in the essence of who you are as an organization and the impact that you're

trying to have can really I mean for such a small thing can really unlock some.

Exciting energy around what many people have a story around being a

pretty boring or Excel spreadsheet.

Yeah.

But I think you're high highlighting such an important point

because the format this is going to roll out in it's super important.

Right.

So it's like, it needs, needs to be in a format that really.

For your organization and Excel spreadsheet definitely

do not work for everyone.

So what is, what is the kind

Kendall Clifton-Short: of, I'll be one, but Yeah.

Okay.

Maybe

. Anique Coffee: I love a spreadsheet.

I.

So, yeah, what works for you really?

Like, and what, like how can you make it create, like whether it's

a document or an another anchor or whatever, so becomes something that

is lived in the business right.

And people can really grab onto and wanna pursue yeah.

Into the future.

Fabulous.

All right.

Those are our four steps.

So we're, we're nearing the end now, which is great.

Thank you so much for sharing some of these stories from around your corners

of the world and and your clients.

Let's just zoom out for a quick second and reconnect to what this

four step process even enables.

So if we're really trying to bring attention to our growth and we

follow these four steps, what does this enable for us as leaders?

Well, I think it enables us to rally all our

people around being on the journey and powerful allies on that journey.

And I think it puts us back in the driver's seat of doing it in a way

that is powerful and meaningful and that we can and love, and that will

similarly be powerful and meaningful and have our people continue to

want to be on this journey with us.

So for me, it's a massive arm unlocker of potential and.

Yeah, and to just build on that, I think it's also a huge

opportunity for connection, right?

How fun that you rally your entire team or organization around this and really

get everybody's voice in the mix and you know, here hear different perspectives.

So yeah, I feel it really helps with inclusion and really helps with connect.

Great.

And I'll build on that one more time too, which is really

around clarity and momentum.

Like once you have this clarity, connection comes sometimes even

just from the clarity of everyone knowing exactly what's happening

and how it's going to happen.

And then once everyone's moving in the same direction, momentum is is

inevitable because we're all connected.

We're all aligned, we have a clear plan of moving forward,

and the momentum just goes.

So

lovely.

I actually had a leader ask me a week ago, like, but Kendall,

do you really think that clarity and that alignment is possible?

You know, as an organization of like 130 people?

And I was like, Absolutely , but you have to invest in doing this.

And when you have been in a period of massive growth and moving from

in person to hybrid and stuff, this is often the thing that has

fallen off the priority list.

And so what a great opportunity.

They're like, put it back at the top.

And really when you understand that this is the thing that's going to.

Provide that clarity, build that connection, unlock the potential of

everyone being on the journey and a journey that they're inspired to be on.

It's pretty easy to like move it back up the priority list.

Yeah.

I love that.

Great.

Well, thank you both so much for being here and sharing stories from your, your

clients and the leaders you're supporting.

Hope this is helpful for our leader listeners and they can kind of jump

into this four step in their way and bring it to life in their way.

So thanks so much for being here, both of you.

Kendall Clifton-Short: Thanks for having me.

Thank you for having me.

It's been fun.

Yeah.

Y

yeah.

Super fun.

Thank you so much.

No

worries.

Have a great 2023.

All right.

Yeah.

Happy 2023.

Everyone

. Kendall Clifton-Short: Well,

. True.

Not quite done yet.

. Nikki de Vet: Almost there.