A ‘Word’ on Gaining Perspective

How will you go into 2025 with a mind to harness opportunity?

What’s your word of the year?

The concept of choosing a word to name a theme for the New Year in business and life is a thematic way to create positive change, guide decisions, and basically check yourself and course correct if need be. The idea is to set the year in the right direction without rigid lists or resolutions, but instead a mindset — an attitude.

Dictionary giants like Merriam-Webster treat the word of the year as a way to define the year’s past based on attitudes and perspectives. Not surprisingly, the No. 1 word for 2024 was polarization.

The practice of incapsulating a year’s past — or, importantly, the one to come — with a word or few has even earned its own acronym: WOTY.

Looking ahead as 2025 unfolds, choosing a word to shape the way you’ll approach the new year helps navigate change. It sets a tone and promotes resilience. It encourages us to return to a key idea and to tune out noise that is not productive.

Basically, a word of the year is a slogan to keep your actions “on brand.” And as it is with slogans, the good news is: You can choose more than one word to guide your year.

Maybe it’s something like Apple’s well-known tagline (circa 1997 to 2002): Think Different.

I’m leaning toward Gaining New Perspectives. Another one: Coming Together. Creativity. Innovation. Harmony. Understanding. Collaboration. Openness. Opportunity. Engage. Thrive.

Generate a list, a long one if you must. Brainstorm and involve your team. Whiteboard it and start the conversation. How do you want to approach the coming year in a way that will benefit everyone in the organization and the communities you impact?

For members and stakeholders, we see this year as one of great opportunity if we enter it thinking we have 365 days to come out on the other end of 2025 stronger, healthier, more connected, happier and more productive in the way we problem-solve and galvanize to do better.

Our 2025 In-Value-Able Conference & Expo is an ideal environment to do just that.

We’re convening with recognized leaders vetted on knowledge, experience and your needs as members for best practice sharing, and networking. Hosting you at The Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, we’re anticipating yet another successful education and insight-sharing event for employee benefits and wellness managers, directors, and VPS, HR professionals, business leaders, executives and community stakeholders.

Come and be inquisitive. Be open. Give yourself permission to listen, evaluate and evolve.

We’re welcoming Heather Meade, a principal at EY’s Washington Council Practice, specializing in healthcare and tax-exempt policy. She brings extensive experience advising leaders on legislative and regulatory issues, of which there are more than we can count. We’re looking forward to her insight from the front lines.

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, is the executive director at Neuroscape, at University of California (UC) San Francisco. As a leader in translational neuroscience — developing new therapies for nervous system disorders — he is also co-founder of Akili, which developed the first FDA-cleared therapeutic video game.

An expert in mental wellness and resilience as a former elite athlete, Charles Clark is an award-winning speaker whose goal is to inspire. And he does, to the tune of more than 600,000 people annually who choose to make transformative choices in their personal and professional lives after listening to his ideas.

Dr. Geeta Nayyar is a physician executive and nationally recognized health tech leader. She is the author of Dead Wrong and her practice bridges clinical medicine, business, and digital health. You’ll want to hear how she is advocating for trust building and health literacy to address healthcare’s misinformation crisis.

By the way, our conference words are Engage, Empower, Transform Benefits.

So, let’s make this year one of gaining new perspectives — in a harmonious way and with an open-minded interest in bettering our businesses by leaning on each other for insight.

Tell us what word will define your year. Share it with us and other members at the conference. We look forward to connecting with you there and listening to your ideas.

About Health Action Council 
Health Action Council is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) organization representing mid-and large-size employers that enhance human and economic health through thought leadership, innovative services, and collaboration. It provides value to its members by facilitating projects that improve the quality and moderate the cost of healthcare purchased by its members for their employees, dependents, and retirees. Health Action Council also collaborates with key stakeholders – health plans, physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry – to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare in the community.