Three Resolutions for Your Organization in 2023

Happy New Year! You likely set some new year’s resolutions for yourself in the past few weeks, but don’t forget to set some for your organization, too. As you kick off 2023, it’s worth coming up with some new objectives for you, your organization, or your team to better serve and accomplish your goals this year.

Here are three resolutions to make this year to help breathe new life into your work.

1. Double down on what’s working (and get rid of what’s not)

Figure out what you and your team are doing that is working well or delivering results. Perhaps, you’ve secured some big legislative victories or negotiations. Or maybe you’ve helped get your work in the news or even seen a spike in potential clients. Don’t forget to look at more specific successes, like more efficient meetings, faster turnaround times, or better communication between teams. Dig into what worked for you in the last year.

In some cases, to assess your progress you’ll need to dig into your data. Check how many site visits your website got, how many new subscribers were added to your email list, how many people clicked through your emails or purchased something, or if you accomplished the goals your organization promised – passing legislation or building a coalition. Be honest about this data, and based on your findings, start to determine what was at the root of this success. If you had improved communication with your team – how did you do it?

Upon investigation, some things will become clear. You might see some victories, but you’ll likely also see some failures. Failure has a negative connotation, but it truly does offer valuable information. Failure shows you what policies or practices don’t work, on a granular or macro scale, and pushes you toward those that do. As you identify the failures, highlight them. Use them to illustrate what you’ll do differently to make everyone’s job or work better, easier, or more successful. See this information as a way to eliminate unnecessary or inefficient tasks, meetings, or processes. Doing so will help free up your time so you can focus on what is working. For example, if you see that more meetings were held than ever before, but overall, the team was less productive, that’s important information to inform a policy change.

2. Experiment outside your comfort zone

Commit to trying new things – particularly new strategies or tactics that are outside your comfort zone. Most of the time, we operate within a framework that has been deemed standard practice. We don’t want to expand our vision to a new audience, try a new tool, or use a different strategy that is outside of the status quo. The truth is, if we want to see change and growth, this kind of experimentation is necessary.

It can be hard to experiment when there is a lot on the line – start small, experimenting on a more manageable scale. For example, you could try a new tactic or target a new audience using a small social media ad buy. Or use a new email marketing service with a trusted email list so you aren’t taking a chance on your list of thousands or tens of thousands of people. Starting small will help prepare you and still give you the experience and confidence you need to go bigger once you’ve identified a successful strategy. You can lower the stakes, but still take action to try something new.

Don’t be afraid to fail. If you experiment and the results aren’t what you were hoping for, that’s still a victory. You learned something and you can cross off that strategy for the future. Just make sure you’ve set expectations with your team or managers to ensure they understand the bigger picture.

3. Invest in your audience

This is a resolution every organization, elected official, or business owner should prioritize in the new year. Your audience or constituents are your most valuable asset. They have likely signed up to receive communication from you in some form and therefore you have rare access to them – make sure you use it.

A few ways to engage and invest in your audience:

Poll them to find out what they are interested in or what they care about depending on what you do for them. You can send an email poll, post a poll on social media, call them, or even send them a poll in the mail. Studies have shown people like being asked their preferences – it makes them feel heard. This helps inform you – so that you can better serve them or sell to them.

Offer free content or information. Whether it’s something simple like a free calendar that includes all the local holidays or important dates – as suggested here – or free branded swag like a tote bag, pen, or stress ball, people love free content. If your organization specializes in something, provide a sample of it for free. Maybe it’s informational – like a list of farms in the region that are certified organic or maybe it’s a 1-pager with tips about how to conserve water. The options are endless and provide great avenues for you to engage with people.

Tailor your communication to their pain points or interests – once you learn more about your audience, talk to them about topics or issues you know they care about. This builds trust and interest. If you know your audience is especially interested in protecting the future of the planet for the next generation, you can tailor your content to reinforce all the work you do around this issue. It builds brand awareness and helps strengthen the connection between you and your audience.

At a time when attention is a top currency, make sure you are nurturing your audience. Having a loyal base of people interested in hearing from you, learning from you, donating to you, or buying from you is a powerful thing. More than Facebook followers, an audience can stay with you regardless of the platform. It’s worth investing in them to ensure you keep them interested and engaged.

Conclusion

Everyone can benefit from assessing their year and making some changes. These three resolutions are a great place to start to see growth and improvement in 2023. Every organization is different – adjust these resolutions accordingly based on your needs, but make sure to keep assessing.