With the arrival of another new year, many of us have been busy celebrating various traditions which serve to not only remind us of events from the past year, but which also imbue us with a sense of optimism for what we might achieve in the months ahead.

In the case of my family, our New Year’s Eve tradition stems back to when my wife and I were newlyweds, celebrating the start of a new year just a few short months after our wedding. As we had put most of our money into buying new furniture and appliances for our apartment, we didn’t have much money left to celebrate our first New Year’s Eve. Even though we couldn’t afford a night out on the town, my wife and I still wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual milestone.

So an hour or two before midnight, we left our apartment and walked down to our local convenience store and ‘treated’ ourselves to whatever junk food we felt like having – an assortment of sugary treats that brought back fond memories of our youth. We then returned to our apartment to enjoy our stash of potato chips and candies, ringing in the New Year with a toast of our favourite soda.

Although this wasn’t anything extravagant, it still felt nice to celebrate this event despite the constraints we faced. In the following years, we continued to celebrate New Year’s Eve with this ritual, mainly because this simple gesture connected us to those first months in our marriage. When we became parents, we had our children join us in this end-of-year ritual and in a very short time, it became their own end-of-year tradition as well.

In celebrating this annual New Year’s Eve tradition with my family, I thought about how organizations also have their own unique traditions. Although these might Click here to continue reading »”Celebrating The Traditions That Define Your Organization’s Culture”

As the end of another year slowly approaches, there is once again that discernible feeling of eager anticipation for what the upcoming year will bring. In many ways, this is quite natural and expected since, like a present wrapped in shiny paper, the new year entices us with the promise of better times and exciting possibilities. With everyone around us spreading good wishes for a prosperous new year, it’s hard not to feel buoyant that this change in the annual calendar won’t also help mark the transition to a new and bright chapter in our lives.

But while it’s natural to look forward to the possibilities a new year can bring, it’s also important that we not lose sight of the lessons learned over the course of the previous one. Whether it’s failures or accomplishments, both experiences are valuable tools that we shouldn’t overlook as we move forward into a new year.

So, how can we make each successive year better than the one before? As is the case in most aspects of life, it comes down to what questions we choose to ask ourselves. In this case, instead of simply asking Click here to continue reading »”Looking Ahead by Looking Back”