Making New Year’s resolutions stick

With the onset of a new calendar year, many of us participate in that time-honored tradition of making resolutions that are intended to help us be better people and deal more effectively with the world around us. The problem with the traditional approach, however, is that these New Year’s resolutions are more often elements of a wish list than an action plan. 

To make our annual personal goal setting process more effective, try integrating the principles of kaisen or continuous improvement into your personal development plan.These principles include reflection and feedback, efficiency, incremental change and process. 
 

Reflection and feedback. Before you set your goals, spend time in self-examination. This is an educational process that serves as the foundation of personal improvement. Think about your core values, your experiences and how they are impacting your development, and your level of satisfaction with your personal and professional progress. This process of self-education can be enhanced by seeking feedback from others you trust and whose opinions you value.

Efficiency. Once you know where you are, you can now begin charting your path to improvement. The second principle of kaisen, efficiency, involves focusing your attention and energy on those processes in your life that bring you the greatest reward, while avoiding or eliminating elements that undermine progress. This allows you to focus your goal setting on behaviors that will have maximum personal impact that achieve tangible results.

Incremental change. The third principle of kaisen is incremental change. This principle rests on the belief that meaningful improvement is evolutionary, not revolutionary. Once our resolutions have been identified and our personal commitment to the goals solidified, we must recognize that goals are best achieved through a series of small consistent steps. Meaningful progress is not achieved overnight, but is typically accomplished by making two steps forward, followed by one step back. The learning we gain from failure is the surest foundation for lasting success.

Process. The fourth principle is the importance of process. All too often we focus our attention on the end point, the goal, to the exclusion of what can be learned on the path to achieving the goal. The truth is that it’s the way we work that typically determines the outcome of our work.

While making New Year’s resolutions can be a waste of time for many of us, by putting principles of kaisen into practice, we can actually make changes in our lives that will be meaningful and long-lasting.


This blog post is provided by Allen Miller and Business Advantage International. For assistance in dealing with human resources issues including organization effectiveness, training, compensation, and compliance, call Allen at 801.444.9919.