*A scene from the movie, "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Image courtesy of IMDb.*

By Mark Inboden

You can tell it is a new year just by the titles of many articles and emails of the last two weeks.

"5 Things to Do in 2015," "7 Ways to Lose Money," and "10 Reasons for Going to the Moon" are just a few of the titles I have scanned recently.* Everyone has advice on helping people achieve their New Year’s resolutions.

Most people want to make some changes in their lives, and they use the New Year as an opportunity to reset things.

I have another take on this from the business side. A sign of a healthy business culture is that every day is New Year's. Let me explain.

In the movie “Groundhog Day” A weatherman (played by Actor Bill Murray) finds himself living the same day over and over again. Sometimes we can feel this way at our jobs. We fall into the human trap of being comfortable in repeating the same day over and over. We “resolve” that tomorrow will be a repeat of yesterday, because that is what we know and we were successful at it yesterday.

What if we decided that each day should be different?

Things can be different if we use Process and Resolution daily. First, let’s use the following definitions:

Process - a series of actions directed toward a specific aim.

Resolution - the process of resolving something such as a problem or dispute.

Second, is that business is naturally dynamic. Change is a constant. Businesses must have “Processes” in place that provide everyone the opportunity to come to “Resolutions” daily. I am challenging my team and myself to “New Year’s 365.” Each day should not be “Groundhog Day,” but an opportunity to apply processes to resolve problems, or better yet, recognize opportunities.

One benefit of the “365” mindset is that each day one should be able to achieve some daily “resolution” that brings new ideas and challenges to one’s job and business. This will not only be rewarding at the personal level, but many of the “resolutions” will benefit your customers. By keeping a list of today’s challenges and opportunities, you can work on processes to resolve them.

Have a good 2015.

* Two of the titles I made up...I will let you decide which ones.

Mark is President and CEO of UCEC.

New Year’s 365

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