As we approach the close of another year, it's the perfect time to pause and reflect. At Roots & Rivers, 2024 has been a year of discovery, growth, and learning. It’s easy to lose track of the smaller pieces when you’re focused on the big picture. Taking time to look back allows us to celebrate our achievements, embrace our lessons, and set intentions for the future.
This year marked an exciting milestone for us: our first full cycle of quarterly reflections. These sessions have been transformative, helping us stay aligned with our values and strategic goals while giving us space to celebrate and learn as a team.
Here's a look at how our reflection process works, what we uncovered in 2024, and what’s next.
The Quarterly Reflection Process: A Foundation for Our Year-End Review
Our quarterly reflection process is designed to create a rhythm of looking back and looking forward. At the end of each quarter, we hold two sessions:
Looking Back – A space to analyze the past three months, celebrate wins, and examine areas for improvement.
Looking Forward – A forward-thinking session where we set intentions, prioritize internal projects, and align on strategic goals for the next quarter.
Looking Back: A Time for Insight
In our retrospective sessions, we explore:
Context: What happened during the quarter? How did external and internal factors shape our work?
Highlights: What are we celebrating? What worked well?
Specific Project Stories: Which projects stood out? What stories do we want to share?
Values in Action: How did we live our values?
Learnings: Where did we fail or fall short? What isn’t working yet?
We also review a dashboard of key business development, finance and marketing metrics and reflect on intentions set during the previous quarter’s "Looking Forward" session, assessing how our expectations met with reality.
Looking Forward: A Time for Vision
This session focuses on planning for the quarter ahead, guided by:
Context: What’s on the horizon? How can we right-size our plans?
Intentions: How do we want to show up in the next quarter?
Internal Projects: What are we prioritizing?
Goal Setting and Metrics: What areas of our strategic plan will we focus on, and how will we measure success?
Reflections from 2024
2024 has been a year of progress and learning. Here’s what stood out from each quarter.
January–March
Intentions: Acceptance, proactivity, refinement. Context: This was our busiest time of the year, with many projects starting and wrapping up as we and our clients approached fiscal year-end. Highlights:
We got out into the world, attending conferences and speaking at events.
Clarity emerged in our roles, and we discovered a new flow in collaborative relationships.
We kicked off 10 new projects and began working with a WeBC coach on sales and marketing strategies.
Learnings: We saw the intensity of this period coming but didn’t do enough to balance it. Opportunities to delegate, engage ecosystem members, and say “no” could have eased the load.
April–June
Intentions: Be balanced, proactive, creative. Context: Spring brought opportunities to attend events and hold our third annual team retreat, where we celebrated Janani’s two-year anniversary with the team. Highlights:
The retreat fostered connection and had some exciting cathartic moments, shifting energy from the first quarter.
We wrapped up fulfilling projects and began to feel noticed in new ways.
Learnings: We reflected on the importance of identifying when and how to end complex relationships. Asking for help and prioritizing where we show up were also critical lessons. We can’t do it all, and that’s okay.
July–September
Intentions: Reflect, rest, ramp-up. Context: This quarter was marked by growth, as we welcomed Austin to the team and developed a clearer picture of our fall workload. Planned and unplanned time off shaped how we collaborated. Highlights:
Our expanded team of four brought new collaboration and capacity.
Results from targeted outreach began to materialize.
We implemented an effective and supportive annual review process.
Learnings: Scaling processes while maintaining alignment with our values required careful thought. Managing scope and being assertive with clients about realistic timelines—especially for community engagement in the summer—were areas for growth.
October–December
Intentions: Reject the rush, right-size expectations, leverage resources. Context: This busy quarter brought new board development services and strengthened our groove as a team of four. Highlights:
Energizing in-person community engagements
Robust project management tools
Clarity on roles that allowed us to share the workload effectively
Learnings: Complex interactions at community engagements and setting boundaries with clients emerged as key challenges. Finding ways to balance client needs while staying true to our values will remain a focus.
Looking Ahead: See You in 2025!
As we reflect on 2024, we’re grateful for the opportunity to grow alongside our clients, community, and team. Taking time to reflect has reminded us of the importance of celebrating small victories and embracing lessons learned.
With our quarterly reflection process firmly in place, we’re excited to continue building on what we’ve accomplished in 2024. Here’s to a year of celebration, growth, and possibilities. See you in 2025!