What New Year's Resolutions and Return-to-Office Mandates Have in Common

I want to share one of my favorite tools for year-end reflection: YearCompass. Thanks to my dear friend and brilliant fellow coach, Allie Wilkinson for sharing it with me. It's a free booklet that guides you through examining your year from multiple angles - celebrating victories, acknowledging challenges, uncovering patterns, and identifying what truly matters as you move forward.

What's fascinating about YearCompass is how it embodies the kind of systems thinking we need right now. Instead of pushing for a single outcome, it helps us map the rich landscape of our experiences and aspirations. It creates space for us to get regulated, see clearly, and move forward with intention.

This approach illuminates a pattern I've been noticing: how often we try to solve complex challenges with isolated solutions. We see it in organizational mandates that attempt to boost collaboration through universal return-to-office policies. We see it in ourselves when we reduce our hopes for the year ahead to a single resolution. Both ignore the broader context - our need for security and psychological safety, our aspirations for growth, our desire for meaningful impact, our requirement for flexibility, and our deep need for genuine connection.

As you reflect on 2024 and look ahead to 2025, consider exploring SHIFT as a framework for turning your YearCompass insights into meaningful change. Like YearCompass, SHIFT recognizes that real progress comes from understanding and working with the whole system - helping you build the foundations that make sustainable change possible. Both remind us that meaningful change requires us to pause, get regulated, and see the full picture before moving forward.

Sometimes the most powerful shifts start with seeing the whole picture. I'm grateful to be on this journey with you, and I hope these tools serve you well as you reflect and plan for the year ahead.

As you consider your own path forward this year - whether you're leading a team or charting your personal course - I resist the pull toward oversimplified solutions. Download YearCompass, set aside some quiet time, and give yourself permission to engage with the full richness of your experience.

Sometimes the most powerful shifts start with seeing the whole picture. I'm grateful to be on this journey with you, and I hope these tools serve you well as you reflect and plan for the year ahead.

Thank you for being part of this community,

Rachael