Is this the time?

Budget, planning time

This is the time of year most organizations do planning and budgeting. Are you looped into how to get your idea into the budgeting and approval cycle?

Important for the time being

Brilliant ideas go nowhere unless people in the organization feel the ideas are relevant, important or urgent. Are there signs that this might be the time for your idea? Have you clearly shown why and how the idea supports the 2020 strategic through-line?

Time for a through-line?

Does your organization even have a strategic through-line, a connecting theme that ties together every department’s goals and plans? If not, is this the time to help create one? It may be one of the most helpful and under-used leadership planning practices.

Unlike quantifiable goals, through-lines provide a narrative, human thread that paints a picture of the adventure the organization is taking on for the year. Good through-lines are about 15 words. One way to jumpstart your thinking is to fill in the rest of this sentence: “This is the year we’re going to ……”

An idea for the times

External factors -- like climate change, sustainability, equality, employee wellbeing -- are so vocal and visible that many leaders are asking, “How do we balance profit and humanity?”  If the economic system that puts profit ahead of humanity is not sustainable, what can we do?  If conversations like this are happening, this opens a door for Rebels to step in and propose new ways. Or even propose a way to think about new ways. 

Our Rebel value is not just in our ideas, but in our skills in helping our colleagues think in new ways.

Time for others

 Is this the time to help and support other Rebels in your organization? What might you be able to do, however small or large, to help your teammates make their ideas successful? 

Our Rebel value is not just in the ideas we develop, but in our compassion and generosity helping others with their ideas and projects.

Down time

Would some down time rest that big brain of yours? Would stepping back from relentlessly pushing your ideas help you gain some helpful perspective? Effective Rebels practice self-care – taking walks outside, turning off notifications early in the evening, making time for friends and family, reveling in small pleasures, from seeing a local band to reading a novel or watching a movie.

Disruptive times are fraught with fear and despair for most.

I urge you to rebel against fear and make your possibilities real.

Hold on to optimism.

Create small moments of joy at work. The energy from joy is infectious, positive, and makes the adventure – and its inevitable slogs and organizational land mines – worthwhile.

When we started Rebels at Work 10 years ago Carmen and I said that the world needed Rebels more than ever. Maybe our timing was off. Because now is the time.

Adelante, dear Rebels.

 Lois, co-founder, Rebels at Work