What was your most important lesson this year?
I’ve been reflecting on 2019, it’s been quite a remarkable year for Tahzoo. We have had a solid year, delivered meaningful results, and won a number of new clients. We’ve been making a steady march towards a more effective and efficient organization. Not a perfect year though, we’ve been experiencing a number of challenges related to our growth, primarily in the area of hiring and the quality of our customer service. We’ll need to be laser-focused on staffing, the Tahzoo way, and customer service in 2020.
I was reminded of how important it is to see failure as an achievement and not a mistake. Edison, in a discussion around the invention of the light bulb, was quoted “I haven’t failed – I’ve just found 10,000 *designs* that won’t work.” Myself, personally, I’ve found that I learn a lot more from my failures than I do from my successes.
How was 2019 for you? What did you learn this year that you think will become a lasting part of your perspective going forward?
I would love to hear from anyone who is willing to share their thoughts about 2019 with me. I know that over the holidays many people make New Year’s resolutions for improving their lives, myself included. Nonetheless, I’ve found that effort to be hollow if I don’t take the time to reflect on the prior year and openly and honestly examine what I’ve learned this year. I would encourage you to find a quiet space to contemplate and think about the year, in other words, you can’t get it done watching TV at the same time 🙂
I am very conscientious about putting together to-do lists. For anyone who has been in my office, I have four whiteboards at least 2 and usually 3 of which are dedicated to my “to-do lists” within various timeframes. When I’ve been considering the last year and frankly 2018 as well … it’s not so much about what I’ve accomplished but more about the order in which I’ve tackled problems and activities that have been the most impactful. I call this understanding the ‘order of battle’. Which things to take on now verses later, I’ll assume each of you is just like me, in that your “to-do lists”, will vastly exceed your available time.
My big lesson learned for 2019 is that the order in which things are done is more important than what is on my list of things to be done.
To put a finer point on my lesson learned is, it’s not just the notion of prioritization, but taking the time to understand how the work I produce or decisions that I make interact with one another for maximum effect. It’s adding a second step to my process and taking the time to understand intended and unintended interaction models created by my choices.
Let’s go be great!
Brad