When was your last team celebration? Have you been way too busy to bother? Sometimes we get so caught up in day-to-day work that we don't take the time to step back and celebrate success. Some teams may even consider team celebrations as "silly."
It's critical to celebrate success if you want your team to maintain their high performance. Successes are the "motivating fuel" that keeps all of us pushing toward achieving the "bigger and better" goals that we set.
What types of team interaction and discussions normally occur on a day-to-day basis with your team? If you're like most businesses, it's along the lines of the following:
- What's going wrong with the current project.
- Recovering from changes that impact your product or service schedule negatively.
- How to satisfy a disgruntled customer.
If all of your team interactions focus on what's wrong with your business, what happens over time? Team members lose sight of the positive things they do. This can have a demoralizing effect on a team and your business.
Team celebrations help a team bond together. This helps the members maintain focus on their common goals and direction. And, celebrations often help team members deal with stressful changes and prevent "burn-out." They provide revitalization for the team.
Has your team celebrated any successes lately? What did they celebrate? How did they celebrate? For some teams, it's necessary to add structure to the celebration process to ensure that they make the time. To do this, use our three-step process:
1. Identify What To Celebrate
2. Determine How To Celebrate
3. Create A Celebration Action Plan
1. Identify What To Celebrate
It's important to determine what events or activities the team should celebrate. These can be major events or events that help the team reach a milestone. Get your team together and brainstorm a list. Your list might look like the list below.
- Identifying and solving a major roadblock (e.g., customer or quality related issue).
- Taking on added responsibility.
- Adding new team members.
- Dealing with a project crisis.
With the group together, determine the activities your team wants to celebrate.
2. Determine How To Celebrate
Next, identify how you could celebrate. Again, with your team together, brainstorm some celebration activities. These don't have to be major. They could be fun stress relievers or activities that help make your team more visible to upper management. Some ideas are included below:
- Create a presentation for upper management highlighting the team's achievement. Present with all team members in attendance.
- Have the entire team meet with a customer during an on-site visit.
- Invite a senior manager to your team meeting.
- Bring snacks to a team meeting.
- Put congratulatory posters on the wall.
Determine how your team would like to celebrate. Remember, team celebrations don't have to be expensive, time consuming, or difficult to plan. Team celebrations can be formal or impromptu. The key of the team celebration is that it must be sincere.
3. Create A Celebration Action Plan
Create a celebration action plan for the team for (at least) the next six-month time frame. Once the action plan is created, have your team plan the first celebration that will occur in the coming months. This gives them something to look forward to while accomplishing team objectives.
It will take a little effort on your team's part to complete this process, but the pay back in productivity will be worth it. Get going. It's time to celebrate!
Denise O'Berry (aka 'Team Doc') provides tools, tips and advice to help organizations build better teams. Find out more at http://www.teambuildingtips.com
scheduled cleaning services Winnetka ..You're at a meeting with key staff. You want some... Read More
It's a great sunny day so it's time to get... Read More
Have you seen the tee-shirt with the slogan, "Talk to... Read More
Team building takes work but the results are worth it.... Read More
If asked to look at your work calendar for the... Read More
Many believe a leaner government promotes better freedoms with respect... Read More
Most believe that leadership is an innate quality that some... Read More
Companies often have incentives for reps, but sometimes that isn't... Read More
The ability to build effective teams is a must for... Read More
A lot of effort has been carried out in the... Read More
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common... Read More
No figure in history is like General Patton. He was... Read More
People who lead the best teams realise early on that... Read More
Teams are often useful in situations where the task cannot... Read More
The first in a series of articles giving a slightly... Read More
In the constantly changing world of Call Centers, asking agents... Read More
Just today my partner Russ and I sat down to... Read More
1. Humor reduces stress levels and stress is the number... Read More
Ever lost for ideas while working in a group? One... Read More
There are few industries or service type businesses, which are... Read More
"Asking questions can be a means of establishing authority, fulfilling... Read More
Trainers, please picture this... You are presenting in a new... Read More
Franchisors should also be heavy on the award side of... Read More
Winning teams aren't created by accident. Rather, the team or... Read More
The feedback I'm talking about here isn't some sort of... Read More
reliable maid service Lincolnshire ..Did you know your work environment can actually make you... Read More
The very effective tool of keeping a journal can be... Read More
Recently my fourteen-year old son Matt dressed up as Santa... Read More
The Dance of ConflictWhen faced with the prospect of meeting... Read More
Abstract: Based on significant research, Entelechy has defined characteristics of... Read More
Consensus is the appropriate decision strategy for the most important... Read More
Too many techies get a bad rap for lacking teamwork... Read More
The Sales Director had organised a great conference; the venue... Read More
Let's look at the detail of giving feedback. Whether you... Read More
Eight Principles for Purposeful AlignmentEffective teamwork requires individual members of... Read More
For companies to be competitive, decisions have to be made... Read More
Just today my partner Russ and I sat down to... Read More
Ever watched a really brilliant idea meet with resistance and... Read More
Irrespective of any given situation, "Team Work Works!" It is... Read More
The other day I got a call from a friend... Read More
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More
Winning teams aren't created by accident. Rather, the team or... Read More
Remember playing in your childhood sandbox? If you enjoyed being... Read More
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More
Maybe you find yourself in a new team environment and... Read More
The key to life is to be around the people... Read More
A grassy field, two nets, a soccer ball and some... Read More
Companies often have incentives for reps, but sometimes that isn't... Read More
There are few industries or service type businesses, which are... Read More
TEAM LEADERS WORKSHOPAlice asked Cheshire cat "which road should I... Read More
Team Building |