This last post for the year comes at a great time for reflection, on what passed in the year before and what is to come in the year ahead. The welcome lull that the festive season affords is one of my favourite times not just because I get dedicated time to spend with family. I use it to look back and forward and plan things based on what I learned. Sharing a few points here for posterity and maybe it helps others.

Looking back – 2023

What a year it’s been. Jam packed with notable events and the ones that impacted me the most are below:

AI landed BIG TIME. You may have noticed from my recent posts which emphasise the topic, that I am on it and in it. My work has been dominated by it and anyway I have a keen interest, from long before this last year. So I decided a new trend report will focus on this topic – more here: Future of HumAIn Work.

I also published a previous trend report I was working on this year: Employee Customer Experience Connection (paid for). Again, something based on many years of focus at work.

I published a hackathon guide: Hackathon as growth lab and how to lead a hack (paid for).

The hackathon guide was also based on past efforts and this year too I participated in the annual Microsoft Hackathon – more on that here.

On a personal level, I broke a few ribs. If you have never done that before I recommend you steer clear 😆 I have never experienced such excruciating pain before.

My one biggest learning from all this: I laugh in the face of accelerating change.

Looking forward – 2024

Over the years I’ve learned of the increasing futility in making resolutions or predicting any specific outcomes. Instead, I try and simplify and focus on one key priority.

I typically try and capture it in a word or phrase.

In recent years I have used the following words or phrases:

• Simplify
• Create not consume
• Movement
• Attention

The phrase for the coming year is: See what is.

The intention behind this phrase is to encourage experimentation. Try new things and observe the outcomes and hopefully learn from that.

One of my earliest DanelDoodle’s captures this sentiment best with a quote from Herbert Otto.

All that remains for me to say is thank you to everyone that reads my blog posts, trend reports and guides and is a subscriber – I appreciate you more than you can know. I wish you a fantastic festive season and transition to the new year. Please come back in 2024. And share this site and blog if you would be so kind and get people to subscribe (there are loads of places for them to do that – like below 👇🏽). I would really appreciate it 🙏🏽