Today is the first day of 2025.

What a wonderful day to wake up in the new year.

Like any other day, it could be great and not so great depending on your perceived reality and expectations for the year.

We still have wars, rumors of wars, conflicts, preventable diseases and hunger, corruption, moral decay, environmental degradation, homelessness and drugs in many streets, and a host of other social ills.

But individuals at their level of their influence can make changes, foster and promote changes in their own lives and at their communities, without costing them a lot of their efforts, time, and energy.

We don't need more martyrs, we need pragmatic actors who are simply rooted in reality but optimistic and highly adaptive. 

In 2025, there are three areas that purpose-centric organizations will continuously contend even more: 

First, the rapid integration of generative AI to make the work of analysis, documentation, monitoring, and sense-making has become easier than ever before. But using AI technology alone at this incipient stage wont get your organization funded or put in the hall of fame for AI bandwagon. What you need to up your game is not reliance on technology to do your jobs but to augment technology with human insight using thick description to have a real feel of what's going on the ground and get the distinction right between perceptions and reality. What new skills do you need to augment AI in these areas?  

Second, during the pandemic, the weakest of the non-profits died a natural death, merged with a stronger entity, or carried their mandate in a new totally different form. These adaptations are crucial in an increasing tighter regulatory environments, private calls for more transparency public donations and net social impact  Where ESG and corporate philanthropy fail is where the non-profits succeed, with lots of social capital and credibility from the onset. But to exist automatically because you're serving the world is no longer a good business proposition and untenable. Your mission doesn't justify your existence, your sustainability and net social gain do. This time, the strongest will continue to be strong and the weak must be able to catch-up or else, there is no charity waiting in the horizon. You are expected to demonstrable impact at every turn. 

Third, when technology and increasingly mandatory impact as a business objective become front and centre, what investments will you be making to get this right?  Workforce upskilling is one, work flexibility, is another, and increasing organizational innovation, finding the right way to structure the organization according to fast growing societal trends and economic pressures.  What are you doing to strengthen the capacities you have from within? What opportunities  exist that you can leverage? What you should say No to so you can say Yes to growth? 

Changemakers, which I call "Provocateurs" will not be complacent about their success. You either do it or not, don't try.

And if your organization is not in the best position to tackle these challenges, get help and don't do this charade forever that everything is okay when it's not. You can do better than most executives at impacting many lives when you care about results than looking good in the annual reports and social media.

i There has been a uptick on people feeling shame and embarrassment in failing in public.

As long as you're not persona non grata for very bad reasons, chin up.

I was in a mentoring program a few weeks ago, this question popped up  from a group of passionate social venture founders. 

This amazed me because the group is doing good doing the right things.

When this question came up, I thought that it's one of these few factors.

Self-esteem issue and the need to be validated publicly. If no validation comes in, the down-side of too much introspection kicks in and putting blame on oneself needlessly becomes the go-to.

There's too much sharing in the public sphere. If you're working on some new schemes or pivots, the world has no business knowing, except those few people who should be informed.

Shame is a sign that there must be something we have done wrong either by commission or omission. If it's about failure or missing the mark as a business person or career professional without being criminally liable or being in the wrong of side of professional conduct, there's no need for this unhealthy feeling.

As what I've heard lately from the social media grapevine,

"This issue doesn't care about your feelings."

"The world doesn't care about what you feel." 

"Your feelings are not you." 

I may add to these too.

"Your feelings do not reflect who you are as a person and what you are capable of achieving "

Stop feeling ashamed by failing.

​Get used to it. 

No one's making a tally. 

Chin up.