#discovery
2021 was a year of discovery.
- How governments disappoint yet continually govern.
- How businesses and work ignites and douses the human soul.
- How people show their extremes of togetherness and divisiveness.
It’s been a year of paradoxes I guess. Well, polarities and paradoxes (not to be confused with one another) and I’m being deliberately and imperfectly precise about that.
I’ve discovered 3 things in my deliberate off-the-grid, digital detox festive hibernating break:
- My love of vinyl. Sure digitised music is very convenient but acquiring and playing a slab of something 2m 30s long on a pressed piece of wax still holds the same magic as a minor art form. So thanks to my Dad for the gift of a new portable turntable, I’m back in the vinyl zone. Northern Soul collecting is back in the swing of that particular type.
- My love of connections. Being disconnected has taken its toll. Allowing some self-indulgent “doing naff all” time has been necessary to prove I’m just not built for that.
- My love of hope. That we are in still chaotic times of uncertainty and hype, of ridiculousness and cleverness, and that what lies ahead is still in our grasp to design, develop, deploy and do good with what we have, in any way we can.
Today - 31st December - is that day we look back and forward (less a polarity or a paradox but more a point in time) at what happened and what we hope will happen in the year to come.
I’ve already got a prediction piece to write and the past 2 years has proven that gets increasingly difficult but perhaps even more worthy of focus. Helpfully futile? Impossibly possible? Predictably outlandish?
And after a bruising 2020, 2021 promised much. And delivered a lot. With taintedness, of course. But overall, a year which saw the then expanded People and Transformational HR Ltd. expand further; and do more and achieve what it did, is something worthy of mentioning.
Most significantly, a group of people came together in dispersed circumstances but created a fusion I’ve not experienced before. Stronger, kinder, more creative than previously known and experienced. The word team has a new meaning for me. This group of people have set a whole new standard to emulate and advance in 2022 that has me proud, determined and applied like never before. We discovered more of what we’re capable of and what means the most to us.
Also significant were accreditations, awards and acknowledgements. From supportive people (you know who you are, and thanks from us all for those words you continually share online and in conversation about us) to being a certified BCorporation and being recognised as the 2nd Most Influential Thinker in HR are 2 unbelievably powerful things that I will look back on 2021 with a huge sense of accomplishment. We discovered how we were against standards, frameworks and rating systems to be the best we can be.
Discovery that even in adverse and chaotic circumstances, if you hold strong in what you believe in, stand for and do, it helps you focus, direct and apply yourself to give the world your best shot.
In a year of “lots,” there’s also been continued losses. Of life, of sensible, rational behaviours and rights/liberties. We see far too much struggle to be complacent. And we see far too much “word confetti” to simply write about it and hope for the best.
Activism. Actions. Doing.
Words matter but deeds deliver.
Hayley Lewis has put the PTHR 2022 strategy into a sketch note and it includes what we’re going to be doing; activists in and the actions we’ll hold ourselves to account for.
And to all the apps and advice that advocates doing nothing, I’ve just had a few days of that. Doing f*** all. And it wasn’t great for me. Even if just reading or doing a playlist, I’ve got to be doing. It’s just how I’m built I think.
So to all the thinkers AND doers out there, let’s roll into 2022 with that in mind. Thoughtful, discerning action.
I’ve discovered the reset mode. I’ve discovered the recharge formula. AND I’ve discovered the renewal sense that drives me forward.
Whatever 2022 has in store for us all, I’m giving it more than I gave 2021 even. And discovering that quantum energy in us humans is not about limitations, it’s about balance. Of thought, spirit, words and deeds.
2022 is the year for doing more. Not just in volume but in impact. The PTHR Impact Report for 2021 is here. Lovingly crafted by Kirstenbuck and Adrienneskeltonconsultancy and designed by Alice Mariti.
We did a lot of doing. We did a lot of searching. We’re going to be doing a lot more of both in 2022. We have a world that needs thoughtful activism as we emerge into whatever is next.
How we position ourselves to achieve. How we set our performance standards, measures and what matters. How we develop the products and services that make the differences that are needed. And how we, as people, look after, develop, support, enable and do our very best. Together.
2022 is the year for discovering what doing can really mean to create better business, for a better world.
