Dear Chief Reinvention Officers – here we come with the last video for 2017!
We started doing this experiment with videos in August 2017, and now, as the year wraps up, and before we continue to comment anything else, our honest Thank You! Thank you for whether it is the blog that you are reading, the email and newsletter; the videos that you are sharing or the comments that you are making. Your reactions, your feedback, your comments, have been beyond anything I could imagine. I hope this experiment is something that you can always come back to, look through the videos for ideas, and get a little bit of inspiration and support as you attempt to ride the waves of change, rather than be crushed by them.
A reinvention effort, whether that is reinventing yourself, helping your team, your daughter or perhaps a parent, your friend, company, community means reacting to change in a way that is empowering and positive. That is what Chief Reinvention Officer is all about. On this last video we launch for 2017, we would like to take few seconds to reflect, on what is the most important message we got from 2017, something to make you think as you are entering 2018!
For me, it has been empowering experiences, traveling around the world, speaking quite a bit more on this topic and trying to get this idea–of reinventing–being a habit, a way of life, a natural and very needed skill. Basic literacy skill of the 21st century. Spreading that gospel around the world and helping schools, businesses, communities, politicians, companies, non-profits, to reinvent themselves and come out much better than they had been before.
Very recently, for instance, I was in Bratislava, where I had few very intense days, and then one day I asked an executive what the most significant message he got out of the event was, and he said that he used to think that reinvention is all about this “radical” big disruptive things. We were a cooling and heating company and became an automotive company. We were a TV company, and now we are a medical company. What I got out of it is that reinvention always comes out in small steps.
Indeed, there is no substantial disruptive change. Any such change is made of tiny little steps, the incremental daily things we do so that we are inching ourselves forward, just a little bit. And that’s the message I want to leave for you for 2018: Start with small changes and don’t worry about anything BIG. Don’t worry about disruption, don’t worry about BIG leaps into the future. Start with one little thing.
Think about the past twelve months and think of one little thing you have reinvented in your life. It might be that you are drinking more water. It might be that you are calling your colleagues more often rather than sending them a text message. Or perhaps you are running the meetings differently than you used to do in the past or you’ve changed your approach of how you summarize your reports. It could be anything, just choose that one thing you are proud you have reinvented in 2017. Then, think of one thing that you are to reinvent already beginning January 2018. One experiment!
You see – I am very comfortable now in front of this camera, but if you look at my first videos, I was interrupting myself and making weird sounds almost after each sentence. That was my big personal reinvention challenge: to stand in front of the camera and do these videos. I am sure you have also done something, and I am sure you can do one more experiment as the first month of the New Year spends out.
Besides this, the third assignment I have for you as I invite you to commit to incremental steps of changes rather than going obsessively about radical change is to think about one thing you do not want to change. What is the one thing you wish to keep continuous? That you can preserve and protect, that you started in 2017 or perhaps even before that. Maybe you have had it since early childhood, or maybe you picked it up in college, or at your first job. Take a moment and think: what is the one thing you do not want to change?
To sum up: celebrate what you’ve already reinvented in 2017, commit to a new reinvention experience in January 2018, and protect one thing not to be compromised no matter what happens to you. That is my big message, the closure message from 2017.
It has been a wild ride and our team, Chief Reinvention Officer has been working hard to come up with new ideas, new solutions, new support resources for you, and we have no doubt that out of everything you will reinvent something out in 2018.
Before that, I want to celebrate this moment too. Thank you for taking your time, thank you for giving a chance to yourself because when you give a chance to yourself to let go of things that no longer serve you, to upgrade things that no longer support you. When you give yourself a chance to reinvent, you earn the right to choose who you want to be, and that is the most important choice, the most powerful move you have.
Everytime you reinvent, you are choosing a new you. You choose a new company, you choose a new product, you choose a new life, so I appreciate the time you took this year supporting yourself, supporting your company, your team, supporting your community, as you were exploring what a small incremental or big disruptive reinventions you want to pursue as you were choosing a new version of yourself and of this world. I hope your 2018 is filled with joy and light. I hope it is full of nothing but beautiful choices. I hope you are leaving behind things that are weighing you down. I hope you take time to cherish things with someone you care about, do something for yourself, do something for the world. We all need a touch of reinvention right now.
Happy New Year!
Hi Nadya, thank you for your videos and blog posts. I can’t wait to read your books and start implementing reinvention in my life and business