The holidays have passed and the cold bleak of mid-winter is setting in. Staffing has stabilized for the most part and you are busy working on the new staff schedules to coincide with the changes that may have been made. January is a good time to reset. To rethink how the first half of the year went. What worked, didn’t work? What are staff curious about? What are the kids interested in? 

The new year also presents new opportunities to enhance or expand the things that worked well. In one of these posts last year, we talked about the importance of reflection in daily practice. It is not just for leaders, but for everyone. Now is the time to set expectations and give staff something to work with over the long cold winter. What benchmarks will help you know you are getting someplace? One starting point is the CT-QSAT. This self-assessment tool helps you to present not just the expectations, but the aspirations that lead to successful action planning.

Providing a plan for staff gives them a map to follow. One of the key barriers to successful implementation is miscommunication and disconnection. The more clarity staff have to know the direction they are expected to take the program in, the better the buy-in on the idea. Challenge them to think about what they want to reset in the new year. New Year’s resolutions are fleeting at best and often don’t stick, hitting the reset is not a resolution but an action program leaders must take from time to time to keep pushing the needle on program quality.