Planning Days Inspire Teams for 2021

2020 was definitely a year for rising to unforeseen challenges. If there was any doubt that we are innovators, look no further than to last Spring wherein, for two months, the Academy transitioned exclusively to a virtual platform. While necessity was clearly the mother of our most recent inventions, we are hoping that 2021 allows us to return to more thoughtful strategic planning.

Every December, each team spends a day reviewing the past year to evaluate their accomplishments and missteps. We do this in order to plan for the coming year. We revamp, rethink, and retool old ideas and come up with bold new initiatives to implement in the new year. We take risks, and we don’t mind starting from scratch if an old idea no longer works for us.

This year the inspiration was flowing! The multimedia team has plans for podcasts and news broadcasts, and implementing workshops on coding, photography, digital editing, and more. The Arts & Communications team is set to start a literary and art publication and proposes to make exciting improvements to our website. Our Culinary team has many delicious ideas up their chef-coat sleeves, not the least of which is the creation of a monthly fine-dining lunch. The Business and Technology team will be reorganizing their Smartboard in order to dedicate a section to virtual tasks that can be accomplished by our stay-at-home members. We can also look for exciting upgrades to our Workwear Boutique; new displays, signage, and a point-of-sale cash register. In short, all of our teams are reaching for the stars.

French poet Anatole France put it like this: “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” We couldn’t agree more. Our Planning Days are just the beginning. Now comes the work of making our dreams come true, fueled by the trust we place in each other, and in our collective ability to continually improve.