💡Whoa, finally! 2022 is winding down. I can feel the collective sigh across Medical Affairs teams as the holiday break approaches. It has been crazy busy and everyone has been zooming around. Now is a great time to think about next year and all the great ways medical affairs will create better outcomes for patients.
🎯Don’t fall into the trap of jumping into 2023 without reviewing your prior accomplishments. Strategic thinking is being an expert in your TA, seeing how things impact each other and identifying gaps and opportunities to jump on. But strategic thinking is also about being intentional.
That’s why reviewing the past is so critical. It’s not about getting hung up on things that didn’t go particularly well or goals you didn’t accomplish. It’s about learning from them and making sure you and your team are taking an intentional approach to reaching goals and creating positive outcomes. We become strategic thinkers by looking both backward and forward.
Get out your notebook or a blank document on your computer and start thinking about what happened over the last year. Here are my favorite review questions to help strategically plan for the future.
2022 Review Questions
1. What was my or my team’s biggest accomplishment over the past year?
Taking time to review accomplishments is a great way to remind yourself of how much you/the team have done. It is also a great way to track your progress toward goals.
2. What lessons did I or the team learn from things that didn’t go quite right?
Anything that didn’t go as planned is something to learn from.
3. What major projects did you or the team complete over the last year?
Be sure to acknowledge the work everyone did over the last year and pat yourself or the team’s back.
4. Any pending tasks?
Make sure to note anything that didn’t get completed. If they are important for accomplishing 2023 goals make a plan to get them finished.
5. Did I or the team stick to the plan and stay focused?
Note anything that distracted you all over the last year and figure out how to avoid those distractions in the coming year. Were there major roadblocks?
6. What kind of progress did I or the team make on the big 3-5 year goals?
Make note of your or the team’s progress. Are you still on track?
7. What is the #1 thing you or the team need to accomplish next year?
After you’ve gone through how last year went, review next year’s goal and decide on the number one priority for next year.
8. What can I do right now to make next year less stressful for myself and/or my team?
These tend to be the important and not urgent items that often get pushed off. Or it can be small likes like setting some calendar reminders or getting the team folder organized that make a big impact in long run.
Don’t Forget to Celebrate
After spending time on this, you are probably ready to go crazy planning for next year, but hold up! Bask in the glory of everything you/the team has accomplished. You have done a lot and this should be celebrated.
Medical affairs folks tend to be overachievers and focus on everything that still needs to be done. This is also a trap because there is always more to do!
Seriously, you are doing a really good job. Remind yourself of that.
Conclusion
Now that you have reviewed all the amazing initiatives/projects/tasks that you and the team have accomplished over the last year, how will you celebrate? When we celebrate it helps engrain everything we learned and helps us be more strategic in the future.
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