Reflecting on 2024: Where We’ve Been and What’s in Store
As we approach the end of 2024, it feels timely to pause and reflect on what has been both a challenging and enlightening year at Vicissitude. We’ve gone through some changes ourselves and have certainly seen that reflected in the client organisations we’ve been working with too (hey, as Heraclitus noted in the 6th century BCE, ‘Change is the only constant’).
Here, we take a look at some of those changes and how organisations have been overcoming them, before peering ahead at what 2025 might hold.
The Reality of Constraint
Perhaps the most prominent theme we've observed this year has been the impact of significant cost pressures and budgetary constraints across many sectors and industries. From Victorian Government departments to healthcare organisations, higher education providers to professional service firms, businesses everywhere are grappling with the challenge of delivering value while working with reduced resources.
This economic reality has created an interesting shift in how organisations approach development and change initiatives. We're seeing a trend toward shorter, more targeted programmes rather than longer-term systemic solutions. While this approach can work effectively in some instances, it often means sacrificing programme elements that could yield more substantial long-term benefits, in favour of immediate results.
Obviously, in these times business need to be shrewd and discerning about what will deliver the best ROI and what they can actually afford (no point having excellent leaders with no teams, because extensive redundancies have been necessary), but the reality is that not all change can happen overnight.
Despite these challenges, we've also observed and utilised some creative ways to maintain impact despite these constraints. As they say, diamonds are made under pressure! Some effective approaches we've seen include:
Increasing use of technology to extend programme reach and accessibility – hello, webinars (again)!
Creating peer learning networks to sustain development between formal interventions
Breaking larger initiatives into smaller, manageable chunks that can be implemented incrementally
Building internal capability to reduce ongoing external consulting needs, or co-delivery models with internal/external partnerships.
When You Can’t Do It All, Prioritisation Is key
Despite these constraints, it's been encouraging to see organisations maintaining their commitment to critical areas of development. In particular, leadership development remains crucial for business success.
Anyone who’s had a leader or manager knows just how impactful they are on your experience of the workplace. Add into the mix that the complexity of today's business environment demands more from leaders than ever before and we see that leader training and development is key.
Some of the capabilities we’ve seen a focus on include:
Managing hybrid teams effectively
Leading through uncertainty and change
Building psychological safety in teams
Preventing burnout and looking after wellbeing
Maintaining sustainable performance and productivity.
Looking Ahead: Key Challenges for 2025
As we look toward 2025, several key challenges and opportunities are emerging for organisations:
1. Evolving Employee Expectations
There is an ongoing (and often unspoken) negotiation between businesses and their staff around hybrid work and work-life balance that will no doubt continue to require careful attention and innovative solutions. If businesses want to perform well, they need to crack the code of the employee value proposition and balance business outcomes with the wellbeing needs of their staff.
2. Maturing Psychosocial Risk Management
With iterations of psychosocial hazard codes and legislation still evolving, organisations will continue to develop more sophisticated and mature strategies for managing psychosocial risk and preventing burnout. We are interested to see how the broader dialogue around these issues can draw insights from integrated approaches that look at both individual factors and systemic issues.
3. Navigating the AI Revolution
Yes, we’re talking about GenAI again. But realistically, the increasing integration of these technological developments will require leaders to develop new capabilities in managing hybrid human-AI teams and workflows and will even have implications for long-embedded organisational systems like performance evaluations and progression. Organisations will need to think carefully and clearly delineate between which tasks need a human touch, and which can be optimised through AI.
4. Leadership Capability Development
For just about every workplace challenge, the answer seems to involve some variation on the theme of ‘Leaders will need to learn how to [insert new skill, practice, or knowledge]’. As expectations on leaders continue to grow, organisations need to ensure sufficient development opportunities are provided for leaders to gather these required skills and knowledge, but more importantly, also consider how to support leaders in managing these increasing demands. How much is reasonable to expect of our leaders before this in itself becomes a psychosocial risk?
5. Crafting Positive Team Dynamics
The team is a powerful organisational unit and in terms of work getting done efficiently and effectively, they are the powerhouses and engines of the world of work. In our experience, not enough focus gets placed on the dynamics of teams until they are broken or dysfunctional. Perhaps 2025 will bring more appetite for organisations to work proactively on crafting positive team dynamics and optimising their output.
Final Thoughts
While 2024 has presented its share of challenges, it has also demonstrated the remarkable capacity of organisations and their people to adapt and evolve. A key insight has been that even in times of constraint, investing in your people and your organisational culture isn't optional – it's about finding smarter, more efficient ways to maintain this critical focus.
In the midst of challenge, change, and (at times) chaos, we’ve also been reminded of the guiding light of purpose. We are so fortunate to have spent 2024 working alongside organisations that deliver important outcomes for our world, and this in turn has been a constant reminder to us of why we get out of bed in the morning to do the work we do!
And so, we say a massive ‘Thank you!’ to all the people we’ve had the joy of working with in 2024 – we hope to continue the conversations, impact, and ability to change for the better in 2025!
We'd love to hear your reflections on 2024. What challenges have you faced in your organisation? How are you preparing for the opportunities and challenges that 2025 might bring?
Written by Madeleine Crawford and Susan Crawford
