Celebrate Effort & Progress

During the toughest moments of the pandemic, physically and mentally exhausted medical staff around the world went dancing together to de-stress, uplifting spirits and morale. As we are facing the devastation of wars, climate change, poverty, injustice, rising inflation, and many more real-life problems, being able to notice amid the bad news the daily miracles and celebrate small successes will give us hope and energy to go through these adversities. It’s easy to stay positive during good times, but our true test comes when things are hard. Can we find the energy and the strength to rise above the negativities and then grab and expand the positive? There’s always something to be thankful for and almost always a reason (or an excuse) to celebrate.

I am not suggesting to ignore, to be heartless to other people's suffering nor promoting instant fake happiness as a cheap substitution for necessary grief. At the same time, there is so much good in our world waiting to be celebrated, and we need to move to take action to help ourselves so we can help the ones in need.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sky", "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance" ~?Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

Where I grew up, in Israel, one can feel the sharp transition from mourning to celebrating. 24 hours after the entire country is filled with sadness and gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives to protect it, everyone goes out to celebrate freedom. As the old saying immortalized by Queen's song goes: "The show must go on, Inside my heart is breaking, My makeup may be flaking, But my smile, still, stays on."

Don't Make Suffering Your Default

Before printing was invented, the monks at the oldest monastery were copying new books from the old copies of scriptures for centuries while the original was locked in the vault. Towards the end of his life, the head monk decided to go down and open the vault to read from the original. Suddenly he collapsed and started to cry: "I wasted my life. It is written Thy Shall?Celebrate! NOT?Celibate!!!"?

Celebrations in the workplace often get overlooked as an unimportant or unproductive waste of precious work time.?Some leaders still believe that by avoiding and delaying all forms of indulgence and joy, they and others will be motivated to achieve more. They feel that work should be serious and that having fun is meant for their personal lives. The underlying fears are probably of complacency, of diluting the importance of big achievements by acknowledging them too frequently and making them less meaningful if too many people are recognized.

Celebrate effort, grit, and progress, and research

Organizations with a culture of celebrating progress, and achieving milestones on the way to the bigger goal, see a higher success rate than those in the same industry that skip the human need for recognition.

A study conducted by the American psychologist, Dr. Carol Dweck author of "Mindset" found that kids who were praised for their effort are 92% more inclined to choose to attempt a harder task next time than those who were praised for their achievements. They had a growth mindset.

Research that was conducted at the HAAS School of Business at UC Berkeley found that employees who feel recognized are 23% more effective and productive and those who felt appreciated at work were 43% more effective and productive. On the flip side, 66% of the people said that they were likely to leave their jobs if they didn’t feel appreciated.

Why is celebrating effort and progress so important?

1. Building up the achievement muscles

Everyone who has P&L KPIs knows the difference between audacious and realistic goals that motivate and unrealistic goals that deflate morale and cause disengagement. However, creating stretch yet attainable milestones usually reignites confidence in their ability to deliver and eventually increases the chances to achieve the BIG goals. As the American painter Bob Ross said: “There’s nothing in the world that breeds success like success.”

Celebrating small wins is proof of success that builds confidence in stepping up to the next level. It pumps the team with positive energy and uplifts engagement.

2. The Dopamine Rush of Acknowledgment:?

Last century, the Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Eric Berne, the originator of Transactional Analysis, identified and coined the term "Recognition hunger:" When others recognize and acknowledge us, especially the ones whom we care about, it reinforces our sense of identity as we all yearn to be noticed, affirmed, accepted, feel good about ourselves (self-esteem), and feel that we belong.

The problem with delaying celebrations to a big event is that they are infrequent and impersonal. Let's face it, the young generation needs more frequent affirmations. In the social media era, even older people like me are addicted to the dopamine rush. Gone are the days when they can wait until the next year's kick-off event to be recognized usually in a boring ceremony. Celebrating small wins is an opportunity to recognize their effort. It is a perfect opportunity to give people a dosage of significance that will delight them thus compel them to delight you back with their dedication to put even more effort going forward.

3. Nurturing collaboration & camaraderie:?

Celebrating small wins provides opportunities to recognize not just individual contributions but also recognize and celebrate collective efforts that contribute to the team spirit. "Teams that eat together, win together." Celebrations provide opportunities for informal, spontaneous, and joyful team bonding. In competitive sports, celebrating not only after winning but also after "almost winning" creates a culture of support and interdependency. Teams with positive relationships almost always outperform teams with bad relationships, no matter how talented the individual players are. Celebrating as a team heightens our confidence in each other capabilities, proving to ourselves that together we are able to achieve much more than we thought we could. With everybody realizing their true capabilities of making each other better, efficiency will take off and the team, as a whole, will be able to perform even better. Celebrating your winnings is addictive – everyone likes this feeling. Thus, celebrations are motivating.

4. De-stress and Energize:?

When we started working with the top 250 leaders of Marina Bay Sands, the iconic integrated resort in Singapore and probably one of the most profitable ones in the world, they were ranked 140 places on Tripadvisor. Seven months later, they reached with hard work the rank of 36. A few weeks after our work was done, they implemented a celebration at work in their lobby delighting themselves, their workers, and their guests. With 2,652 rooms you can imagine the stress of getting the rooms ready on time for check-in without endless lines.

Just like exercise, physical celebration activity like flash mob dance stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators. It also reduces the levels of the stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. Dancing together is a social activity that connects people and brings a smile to their faces that is infectious due to our mirror neurons. That causes the release also of the love hormone oxytocin which kick-starts the reward circuitry in the brain to release the happiness hormone dopamine and serotonin. Dancing together bonds people and there is scientific evidence that it also sharpens the mind and reduces fatigue.

No wonder front-liner teams worldwide, medical staff, police, fire brigade, and others chose to dance during the most difficult times of the pandemic. Facing exhaustion, burnout, and emotional fatigue, dancing together uplifted spirits and morale. Some hospitals started dance classes at work to allow the physical release of stress and bonding among themselves and with their patients. Many of them joined the Jeruslama dance challenge.

5. Learning moments:?

According to Garry Ridge, the chairman, and CEO of WD40, the people who work for his company are members of the tribe and therefore they don't make mistakes. Instead, they have “learning moments,” which Garry defines as both negative and positive experiences that they can then safely and without fear report back to their colleagues. By celebrating not only small wins but also "learning moments" of small failure you can align, recalibrate, and apply the learning towards the next small win.

Your team can receive valuable affirmation and feedback at every step. It gives you the opportunity to reinforce what works well, which can then be replicated and further developed at each step. Focusing on effort and progress also helps you put everyone on track and avoid massive deviation from the big goal.

Having a culture that chooses to celebrate the effort and progress of both wins and failures, bonds people together. It shortens the emotional recovery time from the sense of disappointment. It eliminates unproductive negativities such as blame, shame, gossip, and cynicism, replacing them with a sense of ownership and a desire to correct to win together. It also gives everyone the space to ask for help and advice and for the leaders an opportunity to coach and mentor.

Celebrate to Show Care and Have Fun

Oscar Wilde said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people exist that is all." As we spend most of our daylight hours at work, not having fun is merely existing, not living.

Life is all about creating and capturing memories. It is important to celebrate work anniversaries and signal to people that their long service is appreciated, birthdays, births, personal achievements like graduating courses, and other happy occasions of your team members and their loved ones.

It does not take much to set a reminder in your calendar of important dates for your team members. You can celebrate simply with a meal like in the picture above Ken Loo who ran our operations and Daniel Lee, who co-authored with me the book First Time Leadership, or be more imaginative and invest in surprise celebrations like the one organized by our delightful client Amy Roberts.

Celebrating personal and cultural occasions breathes life into the organization, increasing employees' happiness. It also affects your employer's brand, retention, and productivity but more importantly, your team members go back home rejuvenated and happier.

As Richard Branson said: “Never underestimate the importance of celebrating – this is something we hold to be true at Virgin. We know the power that public and private praise and parties have to raise morale and reinforce positive behavior. Plus, life’s more fun when you stop to appreciate both the big and small moments and milestones.”

DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:?

Celebrations are great at promoting DEI. Celebrations that include everybody send a message that everyone has a role to play in this win, regardless of your position, gender, race, faith, and preferences. Almost every week there is a celebration, a holiday or a festival in one part of the world. Celebrating together and learning about each other traditions bring us together.

So, Let's celebrate.