April heralds a new financial year for many organisations, offering the chance to refocus and re-establish the purpose and direction of travel an organisation is set on. Let’s use it to reignite the service strategy and ensure we are doing all we can to deliver to this.
Employees across all teams have undoubtedly worked incredibly hard in often very challenging situations over the past two years. Many are feeling the strain of the ongoing issues of ‘living with Covid’ – with resource and supply issues and, more recently, the less-than-positive economic and geopolitical situation.
The Easter break and the new financial year can be an opportunity to pause and reflect on what you’re currently doing as teams and individuals. We allow ourselves too little time for quiet reflection to ask ourselves the critical questions around challenges we have faced, what hasn’t worked for our customers, and equally, where we have performed well and what we can be proud of.
On an individual level, I worry that we risk overwhelming ourselves, spending the day-to-day running from one task or meeting to the next without pause. In doing so, we miss the critical time to step back and ask ourselves, what if?
A simple matrix for reflection is the Stop, Start and Continue model – what should we stop doing? What would we start doing? And what must we continue to do? This gives us as individuals, teams and organisations the chance to celebrate instances where things have gone right and hold ourselves accountable and change the things that need to be fixed or altered.
The results of reflection may require some work, but to progress as an organisation and improve customer satisfaction, internal reflection, but with an external lens, is key to unlocking new insights.
Old challenges may fade or become better handled and managed, and new ones will emerge as we move forward. Businesses and organisations across all sectors will face tough calls against a backdrop of continued high levels of turmoil.
To thrive through this, we need to build momentum, deliver high service levels, and put our improved strategies into action. Whilst working to keep a drumbeat of business as usual momentum in the background, organisations can still be resetting, realigning and reconfirming to customers – both internally and externally – their goals are for the year ahead, their strategy for achieving them – and critically – what their purpose is.
Spring naturally brings a sense of renewal, so let’s take this opportunity to regroup and reset while continuing to invest in the resilience and agility of our service offering.
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