The ‘wave a magic wand’ question is a great question to use from time to time.
As 2024 draws to a close, I thought it would be useful to share some additional pointers to this question to boost your continuous improvement results in early 2025.
Read over the points, make some notes and then launch yourself into change in the first few days and weeks of 2025.
Ask the question
So, if you could wave a magic wand and change things in your working life, what would they be?
You might want to fix something that is broken, or take advantage of an amazing opportunity.
What would be the one change that would make the biggest impact?
(For a simple and effective prioritisation method, check out my free continuous improvement guide.)
What help do you need?
Can you make this change on your own, or will you need some help from your colleagues?
Who can help you, and when would you need their support?
How much time would you need from them? Do you need to schedule their time, negotiate for it or have to ask for permission to get it?
What would the ideal team that could bring about this change look like?
Do you need to meet regularly in order to make the change happen?
These questions can help you bring an effective team together to make your number one change for next year happen.
What does the result look like?
Having a crystal clear view of what you want to experience and how you want people to behave in order to realise the change, makes a massive difference to the results you experience.
This is exactly the reason why I wrote the book What Does Good Look Like?
I saw too many organisations grumbling about not getting the results they wanted. They were frustrated that their vision wasn’t being realised but all they had done was tell people what they didn’t want.
How about giving your team some clues about the details of what life would be like after the magic wand has swooshed?
Getting a head start
Are there any tasks, favours or good luck that could take place to give you and the team a head start?
Getting some momentum at the start of a change always helps. Overcoming inertia can grease the wheels for the rest of the implementation.
Continuous improvement doesn’t happen on its own, so let’s make it as friction free as possible!
The benefits of the change
Knowing the benefits of the change, what it will do you for you and your team, make communication easier. Change is easier if your team knows the pay off for the time and effort.
Every time you are talking to co-workers, your staff, your project team… remind them of the benefits and why are you doing this. Compound the idea in their head and ensure that they understand why they are doing what they are doing?
Then, as the results start to show up, you’ll know that you are winning.
Getting faster results
Are there any approaches that you know of that can help you to get to your destination faster?
If you think about what you are going to do, which tasks are high effort and which ones are low?
Of those tasks, which of the low effort tasks will give you the best results?
If you can, prioritise those low effort / high impact tasks near the start of your improvement plan.
What’s stopping you?
Are there any blockers on this project? Are there any obstacles that you can foresee that could derail you and your team?
If you can imagine anything, a risk to your improvement project, think up how you would overcome this. Create a plan B, should this arise, so that you won’t be affected.
What you can do today
Is there a step you could take today to make a start? What would this be?
Even a small step in the right direction would help set the scene for 2025. If you can think of something, I’d encourage you to take this step.
This might be writing the plan, setting up a meeting for next year, or reaching out to some colleagues. Writing up a list of the benefits could be a fantastic next step.
Creating the rest of the plan
Do you know how you will get to the end of the improvement?
Do you know what you will do to embed the change?
I find that many businesses know the first few steps, and have a good idea about the end, but don’t know what they need to do in the middle.
If you feel like this about your improvement plans, try this sequence:
- Write down the steps you need to get you started.
- Write down the tasks you need to complete in order for the project to be embedded.
- Share this with your team and see if they can articulate what needs to happen in the middle to join these two lists together.
One primary change for 2025
Having a primary focus for continuous improvement makes change easier for a lot of businesses.
A real challenge is for us all is limiting ourselves to just one change. I admit, it is near impossible.
However, you can adopt the simple prioritisation method I share in my free guide ‘Five ways to make continuous improvement easier‘ and make your life simpler.
I hope you think through the questions laid out in this article and wave your wand in 2025!
