Every December, marketing teams make the same quiet promise: next year will be different. Then January arrives with the same slipped deadlines, the same chaotic feedback, the same projects drifting. The problem is not ambition. It is that most resolutions are wishes, not commitments.
A delivery resolution is a single concrete commitment about how work gets run next year, specific enough to keep and small enough to start in January. Not a transformation programme. Not a new tool. Five decisions, made once, that change the texture of every project that follows.
Who owns delivery on each project?
Resolution one: name one delivery owner for every project, in writing, before it starts. Not a team. Not a shared responsibility. One name next to the word owner, with the authority to chase, decide, and escalate.
This single change does more than any methodology. When everyone knows who owns the timeline, decisions stop waiting for someone else to make them. If you want the full case, start with who actually owns delivery in your team, then make the list of names your first January job.
How fast will you make decisions?
Resolution two: agree decision response times with your clients and stakeholders, in writing, before the work starts. Forty eight hours for feedback. One named approver. No decisions by committee.
Slow decisions are the number one killer of timelines, and they are almost entirely fixable. The teams that decide fast do not have smarter people. They have clearer agreements about who decides and by when. Write yours down in January and watch your timelines change shape by March.
What will your feedback contract say?
Resolution three: put the feedback rules in writing at the start of every project. How many rounds, who gives the feedback, in what form, and by when. Two rounds is the honest standard.
Feedback without a contract becomes a drift: endless rounds, contradictory comments, timelines dying in review. A short written agreement, made once, prevents the most expensive arguments in project work. Your future self, reading why nobody reads your status updates in February, will thank you.
When will you plan the handover?
Resolution four: plan the handover at the start of the project, not the end. Keep a running note from week one: decisions, file locations, key contacts. When the project ends, the handover writes itself.
Most handovers fail because they are an afterthought, assembled by exhausted people. Starting the record early costs minutes a week and saves the brand months of drift later. As great brands are won in the handover argues, the ending is part of the work, so resolve to treat it that way from day one.
What will you stop starting?
Resolution five: finish what you start before starting something new. Limit the number of live projects. Say no to the eleventh priority.
Teams do not have a starting problem. They have a finishing problem, and every new start steals attention from the projects already in flight. The bravest resolution on this list is also the simplest: fewer things, done properly. Your 2027 self will measure the year in shipped work, not started work.
Working with Avy
Resolutions are easy to write and hard to keep, which is why most teams need someone holding them to it. That is what I do inside marketing teams: the owner named, the decisions chased, the feedback contracted, the handover planned, the focus protected.
If you want 2027 to be the year delivery actually worked, start with a conversation. book a call and we will turn these five resolutions into your January plan.
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