#ThisIsOurYear – Motivate Your Team and Win FREE MindMeister Licenses

A new year means new challenges – and if you’re going to be successful, you’ll need everyone in your team to pull in the same direction. In this post, we’ll show you how to structure your plans using mind map templates, boost accountability by making your team goals public, and how to win FREE MindMeister licenses for your team by entering the #ThisIsOurYear competition.

Although it isn’t Groundhog Day until February, the start of a new working year always has a feeling of deja vu. The turning of the calendar means a new quarter, new goals and – if you’re not careful – the same old results as last year.

If you’ve got big plans for 2023, getting your team on board is vital to achieving your goals. The problem is… resolutions are easily broken. You need a way to stop your plans landing among the 26% of those abandoned in the first week, laying a marker for the next twelve months, not just one.

The quickest way to ensure buy-in and boost accountability? Make your goals public! The best tool for the job? You guessed it.

Why Do Yearly Goals Fail?

Before you start making new plans for a new year, we need to ask an honest question. Why do so many team goals fail? Here are some common themes when it comes to yearly planning:

• Lack of clarity. It’s hard to reach your goals if you don’t know what they mean. This problem can actually go two ways – either goals are so broad that they’re impossible to translate to practicalities, or objectives are so granular that the big picture gets lost.
• No buy-in. If you’re a manager, you might have grand visions about leading your team to greatness in 2023. However, if you can’t get your team to share your passion and work together, you could have a hard time getting the results you need.
• Low accountability. Whose job is it anyway? If it isn’t immediately obvious who should be contributing to your yearly goals… the likelihood is that no one will pick up the slack.

Collaborative mind mapping is the start of the solution to these issues. You can:

• Get a clear, accessible overview in the classic mind map structure. 
• Encourage bottom-up ideation, instead of dictating goals to your team.
• Hold your team accountable by sharing your goals publicly for everyone to see.

Yearly Planning With MindMeister: Boost Accountability

Now we know that transparency, democracy, and accountability are the three keys to successful yearly goals, all we need now is a tool to make the plans. That’s where MindMeister comes in!

MindMeister makes yearly planning simple – you can use our huge selection of mind map templates or create your custom plans from scratch. Here are just a few types of yearly plan that you can develop with mind maps:

• OKRs and goal setting. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a popular method for setting and tracking team goals. Your MindMeister mind structures the way that your team records key results and measures progress.
• Business planning. Want to change your business for the better in 2023? Use a mind map to visualize your strategy and present it to your team and stakeholders.
• Project planning. Start as you mean to go on with your first project in the new year. A planning mind map can be the cornerstone of a successful project, helping you achieve your yearly goals, step by step.

Get Started

On a single, collaborative canvas, your team can come together and contribute to your success. Simple, real-time editing means that it’s easy to get everyone involved! Likewise, sharing your map publicly is perfect for achieving accountability: inspiring your team to perform on the big stage.

MindMeister covers all the bases when it comes to yearly plans. Our mind mapping software isn’t just a great tool for brainstorming your plans – our Public Maps Universe is the best place to show them to the world. 

Best of all? You can win big when you publish your MindMeister plans! Keep reading to find out how.

This is 2023. #ThisIsOurYear.

Think you’ve got what it takes? Get started now!

You’ve got the goals, we’ve got the tool. Now it’s time to bring a plan together! To celebrate the start of a new year and the chance to make awesome goals with MindMeister, we’re launching a very special campaign: #ThisIsOurYear.

We don’t just want another plan. We want teams everywhere to say who they are, what makes them great, and why 2023 will be their year. 

Better yet, we’re offering FREE MindMeister Business licenses for one year to the three best teams. Get creative and showcase your team to the world!  

Here’s how to take part:

1. Open our competition page, or go straight to the #ThisIsOurYear template.
2. Fill out the mind map template and say why #ThisIsOurYear.
3. Publish the template on the Public Maps Universe to enter! 

Make Your Plans Shine 

The MindMeister team loves an interesting, well-structured mind map with plenty of colors and visuals – and that’s what we’ll be looking for when judging the competition. Here are some handy hints and tricks to add the right content to your mind map and to really make it pop visually. That way, you give yourself the best chance of winning a prize!

1. Don’t Hold Back

Getting your team on board requires openness and honesty – it’s easier to know where you need to go if everyone is on the same page to start with. Use the “Our Superpower” section to really drill down on the strengths your team possesses. This will help you to: 

• Highlight your key accomplishments from last year. 
• Shine a spotlight on your team’s “unsung heroes”. 
• Motivate your team through positive, public acknowledgement.

Let your team know how much you appreciate them. They’ll pay you back throughout the year!

2. Use Images and Layouts 

Mind maps are great. However, when it comes to showing teams and their structures, org charts are actually slightly better. In the new MindMeister editor, you can integrate org charts into your mind map, which is great for the “Introduce Your Team” part of the #ThisIsOurYear template. 

To showcase your awesome team to the world, you can also add images of your coworkers to your map. It’s a great way to remind your team that they’re working for each other in 2023, which will help you to stick to your goals.

3. Collaborate! 

Everyone in your team will have their own ideas about how 2023 should go, especially when it comes to the topics that you want to start, stop or continue. We’ve made a special section for this on the right-hand side of the #ThisIsOurYear template. Take your chance to fully involve your team – simply invite them to the map and let MindMeister’s real-time editing help them to add their best ideas. 

Best of all, collaboration has practical benefits. Your team will feel more invested in your goals if they had a hand in creating them, so it’s in everyone’s interest to work together in defining what needs to be done. 

Good Luck! 

We’re excited to see your submissions and learn from teams everywhere why #ThisIsOurYear. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about 2023 – and the opportunity to make powerful, collaborative mind maps with MindMeister is just one of them!