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I’ve always had mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions. Which is perhaps why I am just getting around to writing about them in February!
On the one hand, I love them: an occasion for big dramatic improvements that, even if you don’t manage to follow through, at least you were healthier or smarter or whatever for a month or two.
But on the other hand, there is the tendency to fade, to revert, to go back to the old habit, to never quite make progress towards that next level. And especially with my recent focus on sustaining change, I don’t like the idea of letting ourselves off the hook quite so easily.
Resolve First, Ask Questions Later
To resolve first and ask questions later (if ever) is the route most people go. Because it feels way better. There’s a reason Nike has never run January ads asking its audience to “consider their new gym routine” or “discern their priorities”. No, you are a person of action! Of resolve! Of tenacity! And yet baked into that inspiration is the unravelling of so many resolutions. Because what I’ve seen is this: the people who grow the most, and help others grow the most, aren’t the ones who charge into the year doing more. They’re the ones who start by asking better questions.
Yes, it might feel like navel gazing or munching on soda crackers or whatever other dry, uninspiring activity you can think of. And maybe for you it does feel that way! But truly sitting with these hard questions, especially at the beginning of the year, is its own kind of resolve, one that can inform the sort of resolutions that ultimately do sustain well into the future.
So here are three questions to start your year, even if you’re doing so in February:
Three New Year’s Resolutions Questions
1. What results matter most, and why?
This sounds simple. It isn’t.
Most organizations start the year with a list of goals, priorities, OKRs, KPIs, and metrics. But lists don’t create clarity by themselves, and when everything matters then nothing does.
It is through the act of focusing, often through the exclusion of “priorities” that just twenty minutes earlier seemed important, that clarity is achieved. But that means hard conversations, trade-offs, and decisions.
One way you can have these conversations productively is by starting with “why”:
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Why these results over those?
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Why now?
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Why are these the results that matter to the business, the people, and the customers?
This is where the Clarity Principle lives: purpose shapes focus, focus shapes behavior. You can learn more about the Clarity Principle and how to use it in answering these questions yourself by watching the video here.
2. What must flow … and what must stop?
Most organizations are drowning in work that feels urgent but does little to advance what matters. And just through sheer inertia, leaders and cultures preserve old commitments, old routines, and old “this is just how we do it” reflexes.
But systems don’t improve because you add more work. Systems improve when you remove the work that isn’t serving the goal and design the flow that does.
This is where TOC earns its oxygen.
At the beginning of every year, teams should ask:
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Where is the business’s constraint now?
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What must flow faster and more smoothly?
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What needs to stop stealing time, attention, or capacity?
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What habits and measures need to be retired because they no longer serve the system?
These questions force leaders to make the choices that create momentum, and eliminate the friction that quietly drags improvement backwards.
3. How will I lead differently this year than last?
This last one is more personal, but no less important than the other two.
Many leaders begin the year with expectations for their people, even if they haven’t articulated them well. Far fewer begin with seriously considered expectations for themselves (beyond the generously defined “communicate better” or “be more consistent”).
But the truth is simple: organizations shift when leaders shift.
By actually taking that time to seriously consider, define, and perhaps even publicize the specific expectations you have for yourself this year, you’ll be more able to sustain the things you do commit to. And as the leader goes, so does their business.
Here are a few simple and specific expectations I’ll offer as examples, but the point is you need to take the time to consider expectations that are right for you, not the boiler-plate “resolution” kind that so easily slides backwards.
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Run decisions through a TOC filter: name the constraint, state the assumption, choose the action that increases throughput faster than operating expenses or inventory, not the one that just “saves cost.”
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Replace escalation-based urgency with explicit flow rules: what qualifies as “urgent,” what gets queued, and what gets declined.
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Remove contradictory signals: stop rewarding local efficiency, heroics, and “busy”, and explicitly reward throughput, learning, and reliability.
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Use ODSC as the default structure for initiatives: objective, deliverable, success criteria—written down, before work begins.
If you want a different year, you’ll have to show up as a different leader in some way.
A Question for You
As you look at the year ahead:
Which of these three questions is the one you most need to sit with — and what becomes possible when you do?
Till next time,
Lisa
Whenever you're ready, here are a couple more ways I can help you:
- Assumption Hacking Essentials. If you’d like to strengthen the human side of your TOC practice, sign your team up for Jenrada’s course Assumption Hacking Essentials. It’s specifically designed to highlight how individual and group assumptions drive (or block) sustainable results, offering tools and strategies to ensure your improvements truly stick. You can learn more about the course here. →
- Jenrada Programs. Customized workshops and longer engagements to help you create an organization of aligned problem solvers delivering extraordinary results. Complete this form, send me an email, or schedule a discovery call.
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