In this presentation, Walter V. Murray CPA, DBA, PhD, together with several co‑speakers, argues that traditional New Year’s resolutions are a lazy, short‑term approach to change. Instead, they advocate adopting a strategic planning mindset: deliberately mapping where an individual or organization currently stands, where it wants to be, and what is required to get there. The discussion introduces the "5‑Factor Fruitfulness" framework, where "rise"—defined as results, impact, service, and earnings—captures true fruitfulness. Using the metaphor of losing weight, they suggest organizations should shed "deadweight" such as inefficient operations, excess staffing, and debt to improve performance. The speakers preview a deeper dive into five paradigms, practices, and tools that can be employed in 2024 to achieve this organizational weight loss and increase "rise". The tone is motivational and instructional, urging listeners to replace vague resolutions with concrete, strategic actions.
No more resolutions. No more resolutions. What you're going to do now is you're going to make strategic plans.
A resolution is a lazy man's way of planning for future action.
A strategic plan is how you intentionally map out where you are, where you want to be, and what it takes to get there.
What are you going to do more of in 2024? 2024, the year for more.
The law of what?
Well, let me, let me suggest to you that you want to do more rising, rising. You want to rise more. If you've been to one of my 5-Factor Fruitfulness Workshops, you understand and you remember that rise is how we define being fruitful. Rise is results. Impact, service, and earnings. So in 2024, we want to do more rising, more results, more impact, more service, more earnings.
The most important thing that we want to focus on is not just making New Year's resolutions.
I hate that term because it sounds like a lazy man's way of doing strategic planning, planning for a future event, planning for a future action or outcome. I'll make a resolution to lose weight. How about I'll develop a strategic plan to lose weight? Do you know that losing weight is the most frequently made resolution around the world? And so let's move back to a business context. In a business context, what we're talking about really is strategic planning. Understanding where you are, where you want to be, and what does it take to get there. Strategic planning. Business organizations should make resolutions to lose weight. Deadweight in operations, deadweight in implementation, deadweight in staffing, deadweight in debt could hamper your progress towards your strategic goals and visions, right? And so a resolution, i.e., a strategic plan to lose weight for your organization is quite appropriate. But how do you do that? How do you do that? And so we'll talk more as we dive into this presentation on 5 paradigms, practices, and tools that you could use this year to lose weight, organizationally speaking, strategically speaking. How about that? I could probably lose a few pounds myself, come to think about it, but that's another topic for another day. Walter Murray here. We'll talk to you real soon. What is the appropriate volume that I need to speak with so that I can show—
What am I gonna do? I'm gonna put my hand up and stop it.
