How can we use the September reset to plan for a better 2027? By Steve Jefferys
Team development consultancy Ignia has spent years helping organisations build stronger, more effective teams through coaching, facilitation and leadership development.
Founded by former advertising agency leader and ICF-accredited Executive Coach Steve Jefferys, Ignia believes that high-performing teams are built around people, not processes. Regardless of sector or function, successful teams create the conditions for individuals to contribute at their best, collaborate effectively and make a meaningful impact.
Drawing on a career spent advising global brands and leading teams in fast-paced environments, Steve now helps organisations unlock better performance through stronger relationships, clearer communication and greater self-awareness.
As businesses settle back into working life after the summer, Steve explains how the autumn months present an opportunity not just to focus on year-end targets, but to reflect, reset and lay the foundations for a stronger 2027.
With the business world once again spinning on its axis following the summer season, it’s tempting to launch headlong into the new. September brings a fresher outlook, increased energy and a window of headspace to open up thinking to all things innovative: bigger, bolder and better than ever.
While there’ll be targets to meet in the immediate term, consider how you can carve out autumnal time to re-establish your base levels: reflecting as a team, taking stock and pinpointing marginal gains to not just see you through but set you up for success for what’s to come.
2027 can be better planned through a slower, more considered walk up at the business end of 2026. Here are some incisive ways you might be able to do this as a team.
Re-cut 2026 goals to be realistic
A battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy. What looked good on paper in January will have changed in shape come the autumn. Goals change in shape and importance. Some even become obsolete. Not everyone checks the plan is still valid. I know I didn’t.
Use September to have a ‘without prejudice’ look at the plan.
What’s been achieved?
What’s still left to do?
What’s changed?
What needs to be re-shaped to be realistic to resource, market landscape and headspace?
September is a mentally clean time to have an 8+4 re-set on the year: eight months down, four to go. Re-sharpen goals, get people on board and engaged.
Think of the last quarter as the first chapter of your 2027 story
When looking back at the year so far, ensure the collective mindset is one of success, learning and opportunity. Think of it as a story you’re telling. You can set the conditions for this by teeing up some simple, expansive questions to keep things fresh, dynamic and positive.
‘If we’d known what we know now in January, how would we rate ourselves out of 10?’
‘What’s surprised us about the year so far?’
‘What are our biggest learnings?’
‘If we were to begin our 2027 story now, what would our first chapter synopsis be?’
Working from these prompts ensures an evolving narrative emerges full of character, context, plot twists and intrigue. You mightn’t have all the answers, but you’ll likely have some refreshing insights and angles.
Start planning how to plug gaps now
If you’ve done a constructive look-back, what are some of the gaps that need plugging? It could be to do with resources, budget, headcount, space, skills, stakeholders or anything else.
Ask yourselves what impact closing those gaps will have and what effort and planning is required to close them. Asking these questions now gives some run-way before you actually need to do something about them.
Keep tabs on wellbeing as end of year pressure mounts
There’s no escaping that as much as the post-summer period brings a feeling of renewal, once you’re back into the rhythm of daily work then pressure mounts quietly and steadily: deadlines become pressing and cracks might start to appear. The evenings might be lighter now, but pretty soon darkness will close in and 5pm begins to feel like midnight.
Now’s the time to ensure wellbeing becomes something practical and everyday; not just a fancy moniker to be aware of and react to. How you do this depends on your team, their needs and the dynamics you work within.
How can you re-work and run 1-to-1s to ensure there is space and time to explore what’s going on for people?
How can you come together as a team to share, unburden and celebrate success?
What can you plan to look forward to?
Give an MOT to a system or process
Have a look under the bonnet of what supports you as a team and see what you can improve now. It could be a process, a workflow, a meeting or anything else. Set a challenge to fix one thing and see what impact this makes.
It needn’t be revolution. Use your ‘look-back’ to identify one of these and ask yourselves the following questions to right-size what you fix:
What is the issue in a nutshell?
On a scale of 1-10 how easy is it to change?
What’s the most important thing to try and later?
What impact do we think this would have?
How will we know we’ve succeeded?
Doubling down on one area and getting a measure of success can be infectious. The more you see an impact – and the easier you see it is to change things – the better the muscle memory you build to change other areas, too.
Build and bank your ‘successes”
With the sprint towards end of year, it’s easy to go full head down to the finish line. Taking time to ‘recognise the wins’ underscores progress and ignites momentum to do more. This can be done in a couple of simple ways.
One, by having a shared live document that gets added to with successes – big and small – as they are achieved. This brings variety and humour in equal measure. It also serves to normalise sharing ‘stuff we’ve done well’. Before long, you‘ve gathered a critical mass of ‘wins’ to read, group and share.
Alternatively, you can create an event out of ‘sharing successes’. This can be informal on a Friday afternoon team meeting, formally at a monthly town hall or somewhere between the two.
Either way, there’s nothing quite like seeing something written and tangible to celebreate and reinforce forward momentum.
Do your first cut of 2027 NOW
I call this my 40% plan. There’s no polish or panache in this, just a first cut of thinking for you to get down on paper, share and interrogate together as a team.
Doing it in pencil on a sheet or two of A3 keeps the thinking fluid and takes away the need to crack it first time.
Spend 30 minutes on the first draft then walk away from it for a day. Come back to it and add, delete and refine. Then share, discuss, iterate and build it out together as a live and organic document.
By the time the actual plan is required, your early thinking will come in useful.
