Celebrate!! Celebrate!! Dance to the Music!

When planning a project, do you include time to celebrate?

The completion?

Overcoming that thorny problem to get things moving again?

Figuring a way to still stay in budget?

At the Leadership Breakfast - Reston today, we discussed leadership and teams, and of course communications came up as a problem and solution to several performance issues...not an unusual finding.

A significant dissatisfying factor for team members is the feeling that they are not appreciated -

'busting butt and no one notices'. Team leaders are confident that they are communicating and offering positive input – speaking about meeting goals, project progress, and staying in budget for routine operations; acknowledging the 'hero' who pulls it out of the fire on the others.

What is often missing is a celebration at completion and at major junctures during the project. A strategic pizza goes a long way to say I appreciate you! Or skipping the 'first thing Monday' meeting as a reward for the contributions from the team is pretty hard to forget. The point is celebrating the successes is a strong way to communicate several things, including appreciation and closure.

Simple concept – add celebrations to your planning.

Best thing I got from this meeting: Checking the project off a completion list is not a celebration.

[title is from a Three Dog Night tune]