A “Roadmap” or a “Role Map” for 2025? Think Again and Plan Ahead

As you plan for 2025, here is what I need to tell you before you continue your planning.

Consider this: instead of simply mapping out tasks and goals, reflect on who you can become.

Throughout the holidays, I reviewed my work from 2024 and began crafting a plan for the year ahead. This journey led me to evaluate my approach, using personas as a lens to gain new insights and directions for my podcast episodes.

The word persona originates from the Latin term meaning “theatrical mask,” symbolizing the image we project to others. In each episode of the Become a Design Thinker Podcast, I’ve introduced protagonists who adopt specific personas to address challenges differently. These personas shed light on new perspectives and inspire actionable change.

Solving Complex and Ever-Changing Problems

• Become a Courageous Firefighter: Be Patient and Prepared to Solve Complex Problems. The protagonist, Courageous Moses, faces problems that are dynamic and ever-changing. By adopting the firefighter persona, Moses approaches issues carefully, addressing them incrementally to make progress.

• Become a Pathfinder: Don’t Let Stepping Stones Become Obstacles. The protagonist, Angry Jonah, frustrated by his circumstances, employs an experimental mindset. Though unable to solve his problem immediately, staying close to the issue leads him to unexpected outcomes.

Pursuing Goals

• Become a Disciplined Mountaineer: Design Thinking as a Discipline for Progressing Goals. The protagonist, Discipline Nehemiah learns from a professional mountaineer that success lies not in reaching the summit but in safely returning to base. His focus shifts to disciplined processes, enabling multiple attempts for long-term success.

Finding Ways for Self-Improvement

• Become an Earthy Gardener: Cultivate Skills into Strengths of Greatness. The protagonist, Earthy Adam uses the gardener persona to nurture his “seed of greatness.” By dedicating time to skill-building, seeking feedback, and removing toxic habits, he strengthens his competitive edge.

• Become a King of Masks: Adapt Your Persona to Shine in Different Arenas. The protagonist, Disconnected Lot struggles to connect his past skills with the changing world. Inspired by the King of Masks in traditional Chinese theatrical performance, he learns to shift his persona to see and act differently, reinventing his skills for new challenges.

• Become a Master of Shadow Puppetry: Transform Shadows into Performance. The protagonist, Capable Martha discovers her shadows of pride, ego, and passive aggression. By transforming these shadows into strengths, she reshapes her performance at work and in the family.

• Become a Trapeze Artist: Swing into Change to Reinvent Yourself. The protagonist, Wrestling Jacob, stuck in inertia, learns from a trapeze artist. He builds a safety net to embrace failure, maintaining momentum to leap into new opportunities.

Making Decisions

• Become a Tightrope Walker: Balance Yourself When Making Decisions Alone. The protagonist, Straight-forward Ruth faces a pivotal moment alone. Inspired by a tightrope walker, she learns to balance between: Short-term vs. Long-term; Routine vs. Visionary Ideas; Planning vs. Action.

Managing People Relationships

• Become an Archer: Aim at Different Rings of Relationship. The protagonist, Stretched Jonathan struggles to manage relationships. Adopting the archer persona, he learns to build connections in challenging circumstances by focusing on the process, not the trajectory of the arrow. And he proactively chooses his target and doesn’t let the target choose him.

Transforming Life Stories into Meaningful Messages

• Become a Life Curator: Reframe Your Past to Retell Your Story. The protagonist, Heartbroken Hosea reframes his devastating situation into a meaningful story to share by asking deeper questions to reframe the situation. He makes sense of his struggles with his past and shares his insights to inspire others.

Leading with a Servant Mindset

• Become a Quilter: Weave Fragmented Stories into Meaningful Patterns. The protagonist, Neighborly Dorcas, like a quilter, weaves together fragmented ideas to create patterns of self-discovery, community, and freedom.

• Become a Rehearsal Master: Observe to Serve. The protagonist, Observant Mordecai is quiet to observe, patient to prepare, calm to speak and prompt to act like a rehearsal master to serve people that he cares about. He works behind the scenes to refine others’ potential, act strategically, and build meaningful connections.

From Roadmap to Role Map

As you plan for 2025, shift your focus from what you want to achieve to who you want to become. Instead of planning tasks to accomplish or goals to reach in a “Roadmap”, craft a “Role Map” that highlights new personas to embrace, unlocking potential and reinventing skills to thrive in your arena.