I hope you’ll forgive me for another car analogy, but my Dad ran an automobile repair shop for 43 years, and from the age of 12 on, I spent pretty much every Saturday and vacation—all the way through college—under the hood of a car.

For those of you without that experience, during a tune up you change the spark plugs so you get good ignition of the fuel, and change the fuel filter so that the fuel flows freely. You’re basically making sure that your engine is running properly. It’s the time to take care of the asset you already have.

One last point: the reason to do this is because over time, every system goes a little out of whack. Regular adjustments are how we counteract the universe’s tendency towards entropy.

Turning back to business, let’s assume you are leading a team with a lot of moving pieces and talented people. As the months go by, things get off track or slip. Meetings stray from their original reason for being. Follow up isn’t as reliable as it once was. People get busy, and they don’t keep each other posted or reach across functions before taking action.

A couple of times a year, it makes sense to tune up the systems and habits that keep your team operating at a high level. You might even want to assemble a checklist that includes some or all of the following questions:

• Are we managing priorities on an ongoing basis effectively, or do we just keep adding to the list and never take anything off?
• Do we have candor and effective dialogue when we are together?
• Are we setting our meetings up for success with materials delivered when they’re supposed to be so we can have the right conversations?
• Are we focused more on issues (i.e., solving problems, removing barriers, identifying root causes) or updates?
• Are the right people in the room for important discussions?
• Do we need to be better at maintaining focus on our critical few priorities—versus daily firefighting?
• Are we holding ourselves and each other accountable to a standard of effectiveness?

Frankly, a tune up is all about the unsexy stuff. It’s not about big new ideas. It’s basic—but vital—maintenance.

One last point: the end of the year is a very natural time to do a tune up, so consider setting aside some time soon for a self-evaluation and use those insights to set your team up for a great start in 2023.