SmartFlame

RESTOCKING AND TAKING STOCK
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At the end of a year, a fiscal year, or any creative period, it is a good idea to look back and assess what was accomplished. The idea is not to determine all of the faults and failures so that you can apportion blame, but instead to dispassionately review the past in order to ensure a better future.

Focus on the positive. Ask these questions:

1. What did we do right?
2. What moved us forward to our goals?
3. What could we have done better?
4. How will our future actions change based on this knowledge?
5. What lessons did we learn about ourselves, our company, our market, our industry?
6. What is our new plan for achieving our goals?

You may uncover some personnel or process changes that need to be made in order to allow better movement toward goal accomplishment in the new year. But at least those decisions are based on objective evaluation, and not emotional reaction or overreaction to an unsatisfactory outcome.

Taking stock of your current position, and your progress to date, as well as determining how to move forward better in the future, can be a formal or informal process. But it is an important step to take if you truly want to achieve success. In order to make a course correction, you need to know where you are right now. It sometimes helps to know how you got there, if you have been pulled off track. With that information, you can create a new plan to take you to your destination.