Welcome and Purpose
Make some connections. We talk a little bit about trends and insights, today insights more than anything else. Then we get to share ideas and approaches.
The things that we wrestle with in our work lives and in working with our teams are not unique to us, just in case you were feeling that way. We all go through it. We all go through the struggles. I find that when we have the opportunity to talk about these things and learn from each other, it is really helpful.
This is meant to be an intimate group. It is meant to be a place where we can come and share these ideas. We do record it, but the only part that we share out is the part where I am talking. You do not have to worry about someone seeing you on camera when maybe you did not think you were going to be seen, or anything that you share in the conversation being shared outside of this group.
So, with all the wonderful disclaimers and the guidelines of what to expect, we will get started.
Why Strategic Simplicity
I chose this topic of strategic simplicity probably because I needed to learn it too.
At the start of the year, so many of us have the opportunity to set new objectives and ask, what is it that we want to achieve for the year ahead? It is not unique to the first part of the year, but it is common for a lot of us.
Maybe, like many of you, I had the opportunity over the holidays to really reflect on what is important for Accelus Partners and what I wanted to achieve personally for the upcoming year. I came into 2026 full of vim and vigor, full of great ambitions, and then found myself, as we moved through that first month, feeling a bit like this.
A Four-Week Reality Check
I operate my business on a twelve-week year, so every twelve weeks is the beginning and the end of a year. Right now, I am halfway through this first year. At week four, I realized that one of the objectives I had set for myself and for the organization had this much progress on it. That is a third into the year with that much progress.
It was Friday afternoon, which is the time when I usually do my strategic planning and check in: Are we on track? Are we making progress? It was like, gosh darn, this is not pleasant. I think I used another word, but this is not pleasant. There is no progress on this, and the primary fire starter on this is me. There is no progress.
So I made the really tough call to adjust that objective. For me, as I sat here in this very room thinking about it, it felt like a failure. I did not like that. I did not like that something I saw so clearly in the first year needed to be adjusted only four weeks in.
I wrestled with that for a little while, took a walk, came back, and said, now I have to do it. The alternative was looking at it for the next eight weeks of this twelve-week year and thinking, yeah, not going to get there.
I adjusted it and made it something that I could get started and hand off to my team. I have to tell you, it felt really good. It was a great way to end a long week and a great way to end a Friday.
It was not, as much as that little voice inside had been saying, about failure. Having to adjust was not a failure. It was about meeting the reality of what I am capable of and what my team is capable of doing at that time.
A Moment for Reflection
I want to take today and check in. First, I wanted to share that story because we all run into these things. Then I want to check in to see where you are and whether you may be feeling a little bit the same way: How are we going to get there? We have just gotten started.
Give me a moment for reflection. Think about what might feel like it is not making progress. Or are there too many things pushing forward at once? Too many different messages? Whatever it may be, hang on to that as we go through these next few slides and think about some ways to gain clarity and continue that motion forward.
When Everything Feels Important
For a lot of us, myself included, this is what I was feeling on that Friday. I am sure this is a beautiful piece of art, but to me it represented all those things out there, those objectives I wanted to achieve. I could also see all these other things that I would love to achieve. They are related, but if I do not do something to stop the swirl or the spin, none of it is going to come to bear.
This may be true for you in your work life as a leader. It may also be true for your team. It would be a good idea to check in. If I am feeling crowded, what do you think my team is feeling? They may be feeling the same way and not expressing it.
For us as leaders, what gets communicated is our observable behavior. Our team may be looking at us and asking, what are they focused on? Because whatever they are focused on is what I need to be focused on.
If you are focused on a thousand different things, guess where your team is? On a thousand different things as well, and probably facing that same level of confusion. Is this important this week? Is this important? We were working on this last year. What happened to that? So how can we get clarity?
The Clarity of Three Objectives
One of the other things I use in this twelve-week-year process is three objectives. There are only three things that I am focused on for this twelve-week year.
Playing back that Friday afternoon: Tell me three things, Barbara. Only three things. And one of them you can make zero progress on? Yeah, yeah.
What I do know is that having three creates real clarity for me. It was really important in helping me look at that objective and say, this needs to be adjusted, rather than leaving it among a pool of other things that may not be getting the level of traction I would like them to get.
I chose this image because it gave us the one, two, three. It also gives us a starting line and lanes to run in. Somewhere on the other side of this beautiful image is a finish line.
I like this as a way of thinking about the three things that are really going to move me, the organization, and what I am trying to achieve forward. What are those three things?
Some of you have done some work with me privately, and you know that when we set objectives around our work together, it is no more than three things. The same applies to your work life and to what you are communicating to your team.
It is not that you do not achieve other things. If you have done a great job with the vision, the mission, or the purpose of your team, these three things will pick up many of the other things along the way. They will get done as a result of the clarity and focus you have on these three things.
Do Not Just Add More
When we initiate this process of saying, these are the three things I am going to focus on, we often do not take the time to think about what we already have in play and how we make these three things the very clear objectives we are focused on. What we tend to do instead is add things.
We may have had something going on last year, a project we were working on. For whatever reason, we did not get the supplies, did not get the research done, or did not quite complete it. It is still there, and someone on your team is still focused on it.
Then we come into the new year, whether yours is fifty-two weeks or twelve weeks, and say, okay, here are our three priorities and three objectives for this time period. But we have not cleaned up the other things.
We need to be careful that we are not just adding without taking other things away. If something is not finished, it still needs to be finished. Maybe that becomes a priority for this year or this period as well.
What Is the Priority?
You just heard me use the word priorities. Actually, the word was priority. That is the root word, and it has always been singular. That was its origin. What is the priority?
It is only in recent years that we have taken over that word and said, oh, we can certainly have more than one priority, and it has become priorities. The list just keeps expanding from one to two. Three is the maximum, but we keep adding on.
That takes our focus away. It also reduces clarity for the people we lead. So how can we get really, really clear about what the priorities are? I am going to give you the ability to have more than one, but what are they for this year?
Clear Ownership Matters
Finally, it muddles ownership. I could not think of a better word than muddle. I do not know. There is something out there.
Without clarity around what is important for this time frame, where is the person who was working on the project that did not get completed? Are they moving on to a new project? Are they still finishing this one? Should that become a priority?
Even in a team setting, we often do not take the time to identify who is clearly the lead and who is contributing. When we do not have that clarity, it also impedes decision-making. Am I the one contributing, or am I the lead? Decisions do not get made, and things do not fall into place.
Stop, Review, and Decide
We need to stop, take a look at what we had going on, and make a decision about what we pull forward or what we need to take away in order to focus on the things that are now priorities for us.
When we stop and take things away, it gives us the opportunity to think, okay, what can we add? I do not want to add a whole lot here. What I want us to think about is how we can make sure we stay focused on what we have decided is the focus.
In a team setting, this also gives people the opportunity to speak up and say, hey, I thought that project was a priority for us. Right.
Visible Weekly Check-Ins
We want to have quick, visible check-ins. What I have instituted is creating a list on Friday for the next week of the three most important things I need to accomplish. Then I share those with my team on Monday: These are the three things I am focused on for this week.
Let us see. I am a little more than halfway through. You may think, oh, she is running close. It is Thursday. No. I got the most important ones done. The other one and a half are going to be a little bit easier for me to get done, so I am feeling good about it. Do not worry about me on Friday afternoon.
Ownership in Practice
As I mentioned earlier, we need to have clear ownership. Leanna, who is joining us today and helps me out, had some very specific things I gave her to focus on this week. They are part of a longer-term objective, and she knows she has ownership of that.
She just checked back in with me: Did you see that email? Yes, I did. I will get right on that.
The Question for the Group
That is going to wrap up the bulk of my insights for today. This really was much more about insights and sharing. Hopefully, it sparked something within you to think about, because that is really where I would like to take the conversation.
If you and your team only succeeded at three things, and I was generous here, between now and June, what would they be? I do not expect everyone to operate on a twelve-week year, but what could those three things be?
