Engage Purposefully

Every year I like to have a theme, something to focus on. I reflect on the previous year and look ahead. For me, having a focus is bigger than driving results. It’s about what I can do that will have the greatest impact on our clients and our team. We want to do the work that’s the best fit for us, and do it well.

Last year, my focus was on making meaningful connections. ‘Meaningful connections’ doesn’t just refer to connecting with people, or connecting other people to each other, but taking a wide-angle lens and seeing what could be connected—ideas, concepts, events, opportunities. In our day-to-day lives it becomes so easy to forget the big picture. You answer some emails and calls, you go to a meeting, you figure out what to eat for lunch. As I focused on pursuing meaningfulness, it reminded me to step back, listen, and look around. Over time, many of my emails, meetings, and lunches became potential for a connection, to create meaning in moments that might seem meaningless.

Slowly, as the months passed, I found connections began happening on their own. Projects popped up, conversations opened, and opportunities started finding their way to us. By the end of the year, I had a new perspective to bring into 2023—now that the connections are happening, what do I do with them? How do I put this success into action?

This year, I’m focusing on purposeful engagement. I have my new wide-angle view, and now I’ll see what happens when I engage with it. Last year, we wrote a series on our values. This year, purposefully engaging means taking the special part of those values and making them into an experience. It means bringing in the stuff that fits and not being afraid to push out what doesn’t. It means having the confidence to experiment with the very concept of engagement, and not forcing it. We will embrace organized uncertainty, trusting the choices we make and welcoming the challenges ahead of us. We’ll take what comes, and we’ll work with it.

I don’t know what that’s going to look like exactly, and I don’t need to. Last year established a sense of security and helped reaffirm our values. We know who we are: scrappy, not so buttoned-up, able to do a lot with a little. And with that security, designRoom can move forward into 2023 with purpose.