Setting your organisation up for success in 2026
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The end of a year always brings a natural stop – a moment where the pace drops just enough to look back at what the last twelve months truly meant for your organisation.
For membership organisations, that reflection often highlights a mixed picture: moments of progress, moments of pressure, and moments where things didn’t quite go as planned!
It’s easy to move straight into January with a sense of urgency, carrying the weight of renewal cycles, operational deadlines, and the general feeling that you must start quickly and at full force. But, we find that the organisations who make the most meaningful progress in a new year are rarely the ones who sprint as soon as the calendar turns.
They’re the ones who take a few quiet moments, reflect honestly on where they’ve been, and use that information to shape the year ahead with a sense of intention.
This blog is written for exactly that moment – the space between ending one chapter and beginning another. It offers a way for membership organisations to close 2025 with purpose and step into 2026 with focus and a renewed sense of confidence.
Looking back at 2025
Most organisations can name the things that didn’t go to plan in the past year, and membership organisations are no different. For example, perhaps retention dipped more than expected. Perhaps manual processes consumed more hours than they should have, or engagement never quite reached the levels hoped for.
But reflection is about taking the time to understand:
What were the friction points that slowed you down?
What were the decisions that moved you forward?
What surprised you, helped you, or stretched your team in a positive way?
Many organisations find that the most valuable tidbits of information sit beneath the numbers: the moments of member behaviour that didn’t align with expectations, the operational issues that reappeared despite best efforts, the areas where teams felt stretched rather than supported.
The aim of this reflection is simple – to understand what happened so you can choose what to carry with you and what to leave behind.
Choosing one Wildly Important Goal for 2026
The temptation at the start of the year might be to fix everything at once. But change is most effective when it is concentrated, not scattered. This is where setting a Wildly Important Goal (WIG) – something embedded within our own core business model at sheepCRM – can be transformative.
The idea of a Wildly Important Goal comes from the Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) framework, developed by Franklin Covey. In simple terms, 4DX encourages organisations to focus on truly critical goals, rather than spreading energy thinly across dozens of priorities.
In essence, a WIG is not a long checklist of aspirations. It is a single, overarching goal that defines what success looks like by the end of 2026. It acts as the anchor that keeps your priorities from drifting when the year inevitably becomes busy.
For some membership organisations that WIG might sit in engagement: strengthening renewal workflows, building more personal communication, or expanding value for specific segments. For others, it might sit in operations: reducing manual workload, streamlining member onboarding, or using automation (if available) more intelligently.
The purpose isn’t necessarily to choose the “perfect” goal – it’s to choose the right one – the one that would fundamentally change how your organisation performs in 2026.
Translating the WIG into departmental action
Once the organisation has a clear idea on a single direction, each department can define how they contribute to the bigger picture.
For some membership teams, this might mean re-examining renewal workflows, reviewing member journeys, or planning targeted engagement campaigns that reduce churn. For operations, it may involve improving internal processes, replacing manual spreadsheets, or preparing data for system changes. And for leadership, it may mean ensuring structure, clarity, and communication so teams stay aligned throughout the year.
What matters is that every team has a role that harmonises with the WIG – not parallel goals, but connected ones.
This is where a planning framework of questions can be used by a department:
What will the department achieve?
Why does it matter?
What actions will move the department forward?
And what barriers need to be removed before the rest of the year becomes busy?
When each department has a clear answer to these questions, momentum builds quickly allowing for more sustainable growth.
Ensuring operational readiness for 2026
No strategic plan survives without the right operational foundations. The beginning of a new year is the ideal moment to ensure your systems and processes can support your WIG, not hinder it.
For many membership organisations, this means looking at:
Whether key processes like onboarding and renewals can run smoothly without intensive manual effort;
How data will be captured, reviewed, and used to support engagement;
What automations could relieve pressure on teams during peak periods; and
Whether current workflows and systems are still fit for the ambitions ahead.
Operational readiness is the engine behind organisational success. When teams have the right tools and processes in place, strategic goals stop being theoretical and instead they become achievable.
Starting the year strong and avoiding the pitfalls
Member engagement always matters, but early-year engagement can shape the entire tone of the year. January and February are the months where many members naturally reflect on the year ahead, plan their professional development, and reconsider what they want from their memberships.
This is the moment to remind members not just of your services, but of your value:
What they can expect from the year ahead;
How to access resources more easily;
How your organisation is evolving; and
How you’ll support them in their goals for 2026.
High-quality engagement at the start of the year reduces churn, strengthens relationships, and gives members the reassurance that they are part of a community that is organised, thoughtful and prepared.
Avoiding the pitfalls
Planning is energising – but following through is where many organisations stumble.
Some common pitfalls that we have noticed include:
Unclear KPIs;
Goals that are too wide or too numerous;
No defined owner for each priority;
A lack of communication between teams; and
Reacting to short-term pressures instead of staying aligned to the chosen WIG or overall goals.
These challenges are normal – but they are avoidable when planning is built in a clear direction, not volume. A good plan isn’t one filled with ambition; it’s one founded in understanding, capacity and direction.
Turning reflection into action
If your organisation hasn’t yet reviewed 2025 or defined its priorities for 2026, this is an ideal moment.
Use this guide → Reflect honestly → Choose one Wildly Important Goal → Align your teams → Prepare your operations → And start 2026 with clarity and purpose.
A new year is not just a change in date; it’s an opportunity to choose how you want the next chapter of your organisation’s life to unfold. And with the right preparation, 2026 can be the year your company climbs its next mountain with confidence.
