Looking Ahead to 2026

It’s amazing how quickly time goes. This is especially clear at the end of the year when we’re trying to finish all the projects we started or planned in January.

Can you even remember the start of 2025 and your plans? More importantly, have you accomplished the vast majority of what you intended to do?

Now, 2026 is fast approaching. Have you mapped out your goals and projects for the coming year?

What’s in store for your organization in 2026? What are your plans? What challenges are you anticipating next year? How will you face those challenges? What changes will you make to meet these challenges and what outcomes will catch your imagination and interest?

It is obvious that AI is taking over our world in more ways than imagined. AI is likely front and center of the challenges and changes you will face in 2026. As we learn more about its capabilities and technology continues to reshape our lives, especially the workplace, we want to be aware of the potential negatives and the positives.

Don’t lose sight of the need for soft skills including interpersonal communications, empathy, creativity, and teamwork.  AI has yet to master any of these.

This leads to our 2026 plans and challenges. In addition to learning more about AI and how it can impact the work and the writing we do, we plan to focus on two large topics and encourage you to join us as we delve deeper into DEI and employee engagement.

We have been talking about employee engagement being the inclusion in DEI. What is inclusion?  It is all about making everyone count. It’s about making sure everyone has a voice and is heard. It’s about an organization’s practices and their culture. It’s about treating every employee with respect and providing them with a sense of belonging. It’s about encouraging everyone to speak up and share their ideas.

As we move through 2026, we plan to use our weekly blogs to continue talking about employee engagement and exploring what diversity really is, the cornerstones of its beginning as a business issue, and how equity and inclusion support it. Why this focus now? Because diversity is not only misunderstood, but the foundation of its history is rooted in overcoming discrimination and that often gets lost. History matters. And understanding how we got where we are today matters.

We encourage you to check out our website at www.bigbookofhr.com to review the hundreds of blogs we’ve written over the past years and read our new ones throughout 2026.

So, as you finalize your plans for next year, we invite you to join us on our journey as we spend time in 2026 exploring DEI and particularly inclusion, and the powerful topic of employee engagement. We will be checking in periodically to see how you’re doing and encourage you to send any questions or comments to us anytime.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and that remarkable things happen for you in 2026.