Categories: Op-Eds

Teshuvah And Strategic Planning: Seeing The Forest For The Trees

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September 18, 2014, 4 PM ET

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Elul. Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur. Anxiety. Ah yes, time for the Annual Performance Review. And isn’t it a clever (and generous) program in our Organization: First we get 30 days to conduct our own self-reflection and evaluation (“30 Days To A Better You”); next we spend two days (that some describe as one really long day) in an Awesome organization-wide conclave acknowledging the hegemony of The Big Boss, and then segue from there into seven days on probation, culminating (on day eight) in The (Extra Awesome) Final Review. In the end, we hope – and pray – that The Big Boss is impressed with our past year’s contributions to the bottom line, accepts our regrets for any missteps along the way, and hires us back through next year. Pressure! (Especially with the economy and hiring rates what they are these days.) So how can we get an edge and cut a good deal with The Big Boss? Let’s take a look at The Employee Handbook. It alerts us that there are three components to letting The Boss know we mean well and we’re worthy for renewal of our contract. Teshuvah, a centerpiece in the Elul annual review process, is comprised of:

viduy – oral confession
charata – regret for our trespasses
kabbalah al ha’atid – resolve never to repeat these aveirot

As part of the teshuvah process, we are advised by the Human Resources/Internal Communications department – Chazal – that each employee should begin by being mefashpesh b’maasav – that is, by scrutinizing her (or his) deeds. Interestingly, we are not advised to be mefashpesh b’aveirotav – to scrutinize our misdeeds – but rather, just our deeds in general – presumably both bad and good. Very key. And perhaps too often overlooked. If we are solely concerned with improving ourselves, shouldn’t we only focus on our aveirot, on the areas we have been getting wrong? Why waste precious time scrutinizing all our deeds – even the good ones, the ones where we seem to be on track? Perhaps because there is some hidden gain in looking at The Big Picture. Or what is otherwise known – in organizational parlance – as Strategic Planning. Strategic planning, in brief, is the process that organizations use to define their direction and goals for a specific time period and to outline the means and resources they will use to achieve those goals. Typically it begins with the organization clarifying its mission – its raison d’etre – and often as well its values and vision for the future. A common next step is a SWOT analysis. This is where the organization takes stock of its resources – its internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats. The organization then applies this knowledge to maximize use of its assets (Strengths and Opportunities) and minimize its deficits (Weaknesses and Threats) in order to advance more effectively toward fulfillment of its mission. If we are to effectively fulfill the third component of teshuvah – kabbalah al ha’atid,resolve never to repeat – shouldn’t we tap into all our resources? By employing SWOT we can identify not only what deficits led to our missteps – what weaknesses we have to reduce – but also what strengths we can leverage as springboards to greater heights. We effectively double our capacity for improved performance. We pinpoint not only factors that protect us from backsliding – from committing aveirot – but also factors that actually catapult us forward – help us “commit” more mitzvot. Think of it this way: When we only focus on Weaknesses, all that we recognize is that we tend to repeatedly step into big, muddy pools of water (commit aveirot) – and that it would be nifty if we would stop. But when we also remember to assess for Threats, Strengths and Opportunities, we realize that rainy days produce more water; keeping our eyes open when we walk helps us avoid stepping into dangerous trouble spots; and using that footbridge ten yards further down to cross over may just get us where we need to be much more quickly, easily, and cleanly.