It had become clear that our approach wasn’t working.  At the start of last year, we committed to a set of scheduling priorities designed to align our time and maximize capacity.  Yet, in the first two months of this year, we found ourselves facing interrupted progress and a lack of continuity.  To turn things around, we needed to make swift, intentional decisions—ones that not only addressed the issues but also stayed true to our values.  Here’s what we learned as we embraced our own reset practices this week:

Setting the stage for a turnaround

One of our core team values is to lean into joy.  As we began this particular discussion, I introduced a practice I had recently experienced at a friend’s birthday celebration. At the gathering, everyone sat in a circle and shared words of affirmation for the guest of honor.  It was a powerful and moving experience, imagine hearing a room full of people reflect back to you what they value and appreciate most about you.

On Monday morning, I brought this practice to our team. One by one, we took time to celebrate each other, not just for our contributions to the work, but for who we are as individuals.  There’s something transformative about being truly seen, especially in the workplace.  That moment of joyful connection elevated our energy and deepened our sense of purpose.  And with that foundation, we were better prepared to have the real conversation ahead about how we wanted to show up differently in our work.

Identifying the change necessary

For our team, the central challenge was twofold: how to use our existing time and resources differently and how to expand our capacity.  In many ways, solving the first issue could help address the second.  If we could identify what to do less of, freeing up internal bandwidth for higher-impact work, would that ultimately lead to a net gain in productivity?

Still, adjusting our internal capacity alone might not be enough. To reallocate time and resources effectively, we first needed a clear understanding of our total workload. Fortunately, our COO had already developed a detailed outline of our various workflows. The challenge? We had moved so far forward that we hadn’t revisited this document or fully leveraged it to guide collective decisions about where to focus our capacity.

Committing to a path forward

In Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working, Dan Heath writes that the core question behind most change efforts is: How can you do something different and better?  More often than not, the answer isn’t an either/or choice—it’s a both/and.

For us, that meant making strategic shifts in both our meeting cadence and schedules to truly maximize our current capacity.  We took the time to be honest with ourselves and each other, reflecting on how we could individually contribute most effectively. Each of us answered a key question: What is the most important thing I can do to move the company forward?  This clarity is helping us align our time with our highest-impact work.

Try this tool

One simple but powerful exercise to try is the Start, Stop, Less, More grid.  As a manager, this tool helps you and your team pinpoint what’s working, what’s not, and where to shift focus. Spoiler alert: identifying what to stop is often much harder than listing what to start. But if you take an honest look at your team’s performance, measured against both your aspirations and the realities of your capacity, this exercise can be a game-changer for driving meaningful change.

We’re building a movement to change how we work, and we believe managers are the key lever. To learn more about our work and get involved, connect with us at www.managereq.com.