Resolutions help companies start new year right
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — At their Dec. 16 staff meeting, the employees of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health discussed what they wanted to change about work but simply haven't had enough time to stop and fix. They finally took the morning to reflect a little because it's just that time of year.
"We decided to call these our New Year's resolutions," said Amy L. McGuire, the foundation's executive director.
In a way, the big ball that descends over Times Square is like a knock on the head to make us realize we can start over.
It's a time when many of us not only resolve to stop cracking our knuckles but also set work goals. Companies do the same, setting goals, discussing what they did right and what went wrong. And, most important, how to change the things that went wrong.
One of the first things on the NIH foundation's agenda: Fix the time-sheet process. Employees had asked a year ago to change the way they mark their working hours. It's finally time to do that. "We said, 'Let's look now and figure out what we can do differently in 2005, and start from Day 1,' " McGuire said.
McGuire also hopes to have better communication with the foundation's board of directors. She wants to start an online contribution system to help donors give more easily, and she wants to help the quickly growing organization — it ballooned from a 10-person staff in the fall of 2002 to 27 today — to understand everyone's role. "When you grow that quickly, you really just focus on what you have to do," McGuire said. "You don't have the luxury to set goals that will improve performance but aren't immediate."
One company that really feels the New Year's resolution syndrome is Bally Total Fitness. With so many of us determined to hop out of bed Jan. 1 and hop into a Pilates exercise class, the company has to be ready to have its own goals and resolutions set.
"I have historically always asked my team at year-end ... to tell me what they accomplished for the last year and what they want to accomplish for the new year," said Harold Morgan, Bally's chief administrative officer. "It's just something that I have automatically done because of the new year — in addition to changing the nine-volt batteries in my smoke detector."
The company's top managers and leaders went on a retreat in Las Vegas in November to discuss plans for 2005. They then took time to prepare employees for what is to come in the new year. "One of the things we try ... is not only to make resolutions but keep them all year," said Anita Augustine, assistant vice president of development and training at Bally. "But we do a heavy ramp-up in the third and fourth quarter because we want our people to ... be ready to hit the ground running January 1st."
Harvey Goldberg is a Washington, D.C., area chairman with The Executive Committee, a worldwide professional development organization of chief executives. At the end of the year, he reviews with chief executives what their biggest accomplishments were. "They get so caught up in the day-to-day tactical and don't sit up and say, 'Look what I've done so far this year,' " he said. Doing that helps them set next year's goals.
Goldberg then advises leaders to really figure out their big focus for the following year. For some, he said, it will be as grand as changing the culture to one of learning — in which a mistake isn't one person's fault but a learning experience for the company. Not an easy task, but a great goal to set, he said.
