In the first few weeks of the new year, I’ve had more clarity and an increased capacity to reflect on the past year — perhaps because I felt a sense of completeness that I didn’t have access to as 2020 was coming to an end.
It goes without saying that 2020 was a challenging year for all of us — and while I was tempted to share a standard Year in Review, highlighting our trials and triumphs, drivers and drags, and plenty of data….I’m going to approach this differently.
Because my theme for 2021 is radical abandonment of industry standards.
Instead, I’m reviewing our year the same way our internal team reviews each month in our business — with a focus on continuous improvement, rapid iteration, and intentionality.
What worked? What didn’t?
What worked: Doing the thing — over and over and over. Practicing resilience in 2020 allowed us to experience the full range of opportunities, possibilities and learnings.
What didn’t: Reacting. We spent 2020 adapting, constantly on our toes. While we did our best to take an opportunistic approach to the year, it was stressful. Much of Q4 was spent preparing for 2021 to create as much predictability and stability as possible.
What is there to start, stop and continue?
Start: Asking ourselves at every turn, how can we do this differently? In a space that often feels crowded, we’re abandoning the industry standard and creating our own instead. We’re prioritizing radical departure from the norm — ongoingly.
Stop: Repeating the same instructions, expectations, and boundaries and instead focusing on clear communication, thorough documentation, and full-ownership, so that we can continue to rise into excellence and build upon a strong foundation.
Continue: Holding space for our community to drive our company, by asking for feedback, creating contribution opportunities, and honoring the human elements of our business.
What is our commitment moving forward?
More than anything we’re committed to learning, growing, and evolving with every opportunity and experience we’re lucky enough to be faced with.
There’s plenty more context to share — which we’ll namely be doing inside the Curate Community Membership. For now, I hope you found value in this essential breakdown of our high-priority takeaways. Cheers to this year, and many more to come!