Happy New Year!!
I always think it’s exciting to start a new year – a time for wiping the slate clean and creating new beginnings!
How do you go about starting anew?
My husband is from Ecuador, and on New Year’s Eve the Ecuadorians have a wonderful tradition of symbolically “cleansing” themselves of “all-that-was-bad” in the old year prior to starting the new.
Every December 31st the main avenue in Quito, Las Amazonas, is lined with huge papier-mâché effigies of “better-forgotten” events from the past year.
They are usually quite sophisticated – political, sports-related, personal, or just contemporary commentary – pointedly satirical, while respectful, and at midnight they are all burned…
Out with the Old – In with the New!
– How powerful would it be if organizations did this?
– Identified ineffective things from the past year that they wanted to “purge” and replace them with better practices for the future?
– Some interesting opportunities for change would certainly crop up!
It’s a great way to recap the year in a meaningful way.
You’d be acknowledging, considering and “cleansing” the workplace of those old practices, while replacing them with something better for the New!
And it sounds like a perfect excuse for a company celebration to get everyone involved – a fun symbolic ceremony identifying and “burning” little symbols of “The Old” and replacing them with “The New” to ensure a great start to the New Year!
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