Back from Summer

Everyone's back from summer, hopefully with the batteries recharged. Good moment - and a bit of a fragile one.

Because after a few months where people have been doing very different things in very different places, it's easy to assume everyone comes back with the same picture of what matters for the rest of the year.

They don't.

And the bigger the organization, the more that gap costs you, in decisions that contradict each other, and priorities people are guessing at instead of confident about.

Most organizations would benefit from a real reminder right now: here's the direction, here are the goals for the final stretch, here's what we're focused on.

But there's a better move than just telling people that. Whether or not your strategy was built through an involving process in the first place, this is a good moment to make it one now.

When everyone is gathered, spend some time activating the collective genius of the team. Ask what the real bottlenecks are. What's actually going to get in the way of a strong finish to the year.

Do this through involvement, and you've done more than remind people of the direction. You've surfaced exactly what needs to be removed to get there, which is the best possible starting point for the last part of the year.