Lofts-inspired early New Year’s resolutions
The tradition of New Year’s resolutions came from ancient Rome, where Romans made promises of good conduct to the god Janus, for whom the month of January was named. I am quite aware it’s just November 3rd, two months away from January. Yet, it did not stop major retailers from starting their Christmas campaigns already. In October Crate & Barrel launched their “Make this Season Merry and Just Right” ads digitally and on social media two weeks earlier than last year. On my first day here in Chicago I saw Macy’s installing its festive décor.
Passing the Macy’s store on State Street on the way to work today, I thought that maybe it’s not too early to start thinking what I can improve at my workplace when I am back. Here are two resolutions that are inspired by my time here, at the Havas Chicago Village.
1) Thank and recognize people more often
Today in the morning we had All Staff Meeting that was filled with live music, great atmosphere, many presentations and videos. I learnt a lot about Havas Chicago clients, new wins and awards. But what I liked the most about the All Staff meeting is that it was all about recognizing and acknowledging people for the great work they do. It all started with praising Pharmacy (IT department) for a great sound of the sound systems. And, we continued hearing “Good job, Village!”, “Thank you” and loud cheering for people who were mentioned by the leaders on the stage. One of the hosts even requested to turn on “thank you” music when the messages from the WTF box (“What the Fix” box) were being read to everyone as he was writing funny thank-you notes back.
Havas Chicago has “It’s Rad” nominations where anyone can nominate any person in the office as long as they are “All in — Heart — Clever”. And, one person each month who gets the highest number of votes gets a cash prize. I could totally feel love in the air while everyone was watching videos about the “It’s Rad” winners for last three months. Not to mention that one of the winners was a security guard who welcomes us every day at the doors and ensure we all have our passes and are safe. That made me think how important it is to notice, acknowledge and recognize people around you, who we sometimes think just are doing “their job”. This meeting was a great reminder for me that I should thank people more and definitely think about ways how to acknowledge people whom I work with.
2) Organize your team for success
Are you that kind of person who during the meeting will be scribbling her notes on a napkin? Then, I am like you, and I often wonder how a person who was sitting next to me managed to get a ready-for-print perfect wireframe in their leather Moleskine where you can immediate “see” and understand the context of the meeting. And, this is the exact feeling I had when I got introduced to Chilytics’ SharePoint where the Chicago analytics team collaborates: add documents that relate to the projects they work on and even share information on training and online courses available. I imagine that for their new hires, it’s like a treasure box where all the scripts and formulas can be found.
It’s funny that when it comes to client projects, I am the one who rigorously follows naming conventions and recommends structured approach for tagging. But navigating through Chilytics’ SharePoint reminded me that this is what I need to do more for myself and my team in order to be more effective.
According to some research, only 9.2% people feel they achieved their New Year’s resolutions. But I think that I am on the right track to be among 9.2%. Why? Because I have already shared my New Year’s resolutions with the World (okay, maybe not the whole world… but a few of you), that’s one of the psychologist’s secrets to make these resolutions stick!
