“You can't always control what lands on your plate, but you can control how you approach it.”
The Challenge: Operations work is inherently adaptive.
We respond to changing conditions, support other teams, and solve problems as they emerge. This makes it difficult to predict our specific work. Traditional outcome setting doesn't fit our reality.
The Solution: Themes provide structure without the rigidity of goals.
They allow us to direct our professional growth even when we can't control the specific work that comes our way.
A well-defined theme consists of:
- The theme itself - A clear, memorable focus area
- Description and intention - Why this matters and what you aim to achieve
- Ideal outcomes - Examples of what success looks like when pursuing this theme
Example: Instead of “Automate team X’s reporting,” try “Build global solutions”
Intent: Build solutions designed for reuse across teams, not custom implementations that solve for one context.
Ideal outcomes:
- Reduce team-specific workarounds by X% through shared tooling
- Increase solution adoption across Y+ teams (vs. single-team implementations)
With this theme, any request becomes an opportunity to:
- Map the broader system and identify similar needs across teams
- Propose a shared solution instead of a team-specific implementation
- Design for configurability rather than customization
The theme travels with you, regardless of the specific project or stakeholder you're supporting.
Themes don't replace specific objectives. They coexist:
- Concrete goals: Certifications, deliverables, project completions
- Themes: The through-line that connects your concrete goals to broader career development
Often, concrete goals serve a broader theme anyway – they're simply the tangible outputs of a thematic focus.