There is perhaps no better time of the year to consider things from a fresh perspective than the start of the new year. And, it's safe to say, this coming year will bring a dizzying array of challenges for the economic builders across our area--shifting interest rates, polarizing politics, foreign wars, small labor forces, changing market cycles, rampant inflation, and so on mean that resiliency is simply the name of the game in 2024.
As we consider that daunting landscape, we're reminded that it's easy to make broad predictions. The challenge, in reality, is to ask great questions that surface nuance, uncertainty, and choices in a specific way--Annie Duke's book Thinking in Bets might be the best single reference here in recent memory. In short, she's suggesting that how we sort luck from skill becomes the theme of success over time.
Said differently, perhaps the best prediction of all time came from a sports commentator when the Carolina Panthers went to the Super Bowl; when asked to pick a winner, he said that "Carolina wins this one eight out of ten times. This could be one of the two, though."
Happy New Year everybody, and here's to a polite and kind 2024!
Clark Twiddy, President of Twiddy & Company, is the author of our Leadership Corner, published on our blog the third Tuesday of each month. He can be reached at ctwiddy@twiddy.com.
