For some not very logical reason, we measure everything about our personal development in calendar years and only care about it from year to year. Worse, when we reflect on those things we do nothing more than announcing a couple of resolutions for the coming year. Although we firmly believe it when we announce them, enthusiasm soon dwindles and by February we have already forgotten what we wanted to improve in the new year.
Related topics
1 Reasons why students resort to burning schools in Kenya
2 6 things to consider when buying a land
3 5 ways to build a support system among family members
In project development, we work with very short time cycles, called “iterations”, in which the desired outcome is defined and the necessary actions to achieve it are planned. By the end of each iteration, we carry out a “retrospective”, which is a meeting where the team reflects on what has happened during the iteration and identifies actions to improve in the future. More specifically, the members of the team try to answer three questions within a retrospective:
1What can we do to improve from now on?
2What went wrong?
3What can we do to improve from now on?
As they say in the stock market, “past performance does not guarantee future results.” But the experience you have acquired over this year and the previous years provides you with valuable information for a better future. The successes and failures you have been getting tell you what to replicate and what to avoid from now on.
