What I am going to try to make out of 2024
I don't believe in the idea of committing to New Year's resolutions; I feel like they can be a recipe for frustration, and I have always embraced the thinking that life is what happens in the meantime (or while you're busy making plans, as a John Lennon song would say). I think that comes from a deep embracing of complexity and acceptance of serendipity that I hold close to my heart.
There's, though, an overdoing of it, and believe me, I have done that for far too long in my life. Deep reflection has led me to start developing alternative ways to deal with the realization that it is also true that having at least a sort of vision of what to make out of a period (in this case, for the year) is not only helpful but highly recommended (to set boundaries and drive action in a set direction, for instance).
So, for a while, what I try to do is think about overarching themes for the year as part of my highly unstructured organic end-of-year reflection around Christmas and New Year's. This is precisely where I am now, and since some of what I've been figuring out relates to this blog/newsletter, I thought of providing some transparency (interesting enough because it largely relates to one of the overarching themes).
But first, a little note on my deliberate phrasing in the title: When I say "what I am going to try to make out of 2024", there are two key elements worth noting:
"I am going to try" is a clear embracing of the messiness of real life, and thus I can only talk probabilistically based on what I know now and as far as the context will remain roughly the same within the natural boundaries of change (i.e., no disruption).
Just like my second last post for 2023, it is all about what I can do, a sort of Chestertonian mentality of it's "me" what's wrong with the world".
Enough context. Cutting to the chase, I have chosen to articulate one of my overarching themes for the year as something like:
Be more deliberate and intentional about what I want to drive given the sense of direction I have set for myself as a vision for the future (in this context, professionally).
That brings us to the transparency part, as far as this blog/newsletter are concerned.
Foremost, as I have mentioned at least a couple of times here, I do this primarily for myself – it has helped me to better shape my own thoughts and, with that, also influenced my practice at work. That is still the case, but it is also true that I am using this as a part of a longer-term strategy of positioning myself as a kind of thought leader in a broad concept of what I would describe as "philosophy for ways of working" (with a bias towards product development in a digital context, in my case).
To become a better thought leader, and perhaps over the years even dare to claim to be a kind of "philosopher for ways of working" myself (for now, I would describe myself as just a humble lifelong learning apprentice), it would be highly beneficial to me to be able to generate practice experience beyond what I am capable if constrained only to my current context at work. If you mind, you may notice that I have tweaked the personal footnote that I leave in all the texts (with my LinkedIn profile link as well).
So, here I am… Trying to make out of 2024 a year when I will…
Be more deliberate and intentional about what I want to drive given the sense of direction I have set for myself as a vision for the future.
And to be clear, and in case you'd like to help me out on that journey, it doesn't need to be only with formal engagement opportunities (as the footnote alludes to). Any kind of feedback and/or exchange of ideas are also highly appreciated.
I wish you all a 2024 full of learning and (enough) success. Let's do this!
By Rodrigo Sperb, feel free to connect, I'm happy to engage and interact. If I can be of further utility to you or your organization in getting better at working with product development, I am available for part-time advisory, consulting or contract-based engagements.