In the midst of writing my own material for a New Year's blog, I came across some valuable insight on Daniel Pink's site, written by his friend, Fast Company co-founder, Bill Taylor.  The principles outlined in the article (below) were written last January, but are timeless lessons that will never age.  The suggestions are from Bill's book Practically Radical: Not-so-crazy ways to transform your company, shake up your industry, and challenge yourself.    

1. "I resolve to help my organization (and me personally) become “the most of something” in my field.  It’s not good enough to be “pretty good” at everything.  The most successful organizations (and people) are the most of something—the most elite, the most affordable, the most elaborate, the most approachable.  For so long, companies were content operating in the middle of the road.  Today, with so much change, so much pressure, so many new ways to do everything, the middle of the road has become the road to nowhere.  What are you the most of?
2. I resolve to embrace a sense of vuja dé.  We’ve all experienced déjà vu—looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling like you’ve seen it before.  Vuja dé is the flip side of that—looking at a familiar situation (an industry you’ve worked in for decades, problems you’ve worked on for years) as if you’ve never seen it before, and, with that fresh line of sight, developing a distinctive point of view on the future.  The challenge for all of us is that too often, we let what we know limit what we can imagine.  This is the year to face that challenge head-on.
3. I resolve to look for new ideas in new places.  The more I study innovation, the less enamored I become of “benchmarking” the competition.  What good is it to compare yourself against “best practice” in your field, especially if “best practice” isn’t that great to begin with?  The most creative leaders aspire to learn from people and organizations far outside their field as a way to shake things up and make real change.  Strategies and practices that are routine in one industry can be revolutionary when they migrate to another field.  Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas?”

It's my belief that there are only two reasons we would resist adhering to Bill's resolutions above:  One would be complacency or laziness.  People who constantly grow, are people who consistently review their lives through some variant of the above.  Sure it takes time, reflection, stretching and focus, but it's usually well worth the effort.  Remember that others are drawn to people who live in this growth vector of change, even if it's small and incremental.  

The second reason some of us resist the above is fear.  Most of us fear change, and yet secretly hope for more.  These opposing factors are constantly at war within.  And yet for those who do risk the change, there is something divine in creating something new, seeing something differently, assessing one's blind spots and sometimes radical transformation.

On behalf of everyone at Tidemark, we wish you all a successful New Year.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.