One Thing Worth Remembering Per Quarter

“But what is the ONE thing in Q1 that is worth remembering - like if you complete this thing, you and your team are fulfilled, all other things are either not worth mentioning or becoming easier!” We were reviewing a manager’s 2023 roadmap. It was obvious their team is planning to deliver a lot of things. After 10 minutes of going over all the planned projects, I couldn’t help myself but asking the question. “One thing? I have many things planned for Q1…”, the manager was puzzled. “But you must have ONE thing that is truly worthy, that you team resonates around the thing.” , I said. “We all have many things to do. Not everything in our job, or life for that matter, is glorious. In fact we might have to do many things to keep the system running, answering compliance requests or fulfill the top-down demands from senior leadership. These are the tax we pay to work here. We are paid to do these things. But there should be always ONE thing at least, that is ours. The thing we will make a difference: change the status quo, instead of just reacting to one darn thing after another. Years later when we have long gone from the organization, we look back and we can honestly say: ‘that was one thing I am still proud of’; the team members in that future will look at the ONE thing and say: ‘that is a fine engineering job!’ And don’t say you will ‘improve xxx deployment pipeline’. That sounds boring! Say something like ‘we will make deploying changes to production 2 times faster!’ See the difference! ‘Improve’ is a mechanism to a goal, it is not the goal. Articulate the result that will delight your stakeholders. Don’t get trapped in the weeds of implementation details in your roadmap. And you can apply this model to setting personal life goals too. Do something hard and worthy every quarter. You may fail to achieve some goals. So what? In 2022 Q3, I tried to summit Mount Rainier, a 14,000 feet peak in Washington State. I had to turn back at 13,000 feet because of a storm. No groups sumitted that day. I failed but I tested my character, I learned about technical mountain climbing. I have no regret, I did what I could. In 2023 summer, I am going to swim to Seattle, a 2 mile long open water swim across Washington Lake. Why? Because I am afraid of open water swimming, looking at the dark bottomless water makes me cringe. I want to confront my fear. Of course I have to improve my swimming techniques to endure the two miles. But improving swimming as a goal is boring. Swimming across Washington Lake, that is the One thing I will remember for the rest of my life! Here is the trick for setting up memorable team roadmap, or personal goals. Don’t make a lundry list. Pick one thing per quarter that is bold, exciting and pour your heart into it. The rest of the problems, well, they either become irrelevant or are not worth mentioning.”