Teamership: Celebrating milestones
Every team that I work with is busy. They have a lot to do, without the luxury of spare time.
This is a reality of modern organisations, where individuals, teams and departments are continually being asked to do more with less (money, time and people are the usual constraints). An additional layer of complexity is the need for organisations to function as a network (which leads to significant performance improvements) and means that 95% individuals find themselves across multiple teams (75% of which do not exist on the organisational chart).
All of these provide context for why individuals and teams struggle to put the time and effort in to acknowledge and celebrate the progress that they are making. When we reach a key point in a project or process, the typical response is relief and diverting attention to the next pressing task - for this team or one of the other teams that we are a part of.
The missed opportunity here is significant and something that regularly comes up in the work that I do with leaders and teams. When I ask what actions could help their teams improve, something along the lines of "acknowledge the progress that we are making" is almost always in the top three.
I am making a distinction between progress milestones and "success". I think that both need to be acknowledged and for different reasons. Success (however your team defines that) needs to be acknowledged through celebration and, more importantly (in my view), interrogation. I have written about that before here. That helps us send signals, acknowledge the work that we have done and learn from what has gone right so that we can attempt to apply those principles in other parts of our work.
Milestones, however, are markers along the way to success. Celebrating these points of progress are equally important and for different reasons to success.
Firstly, in big, complex pieces of work that are sometimes years in length, we want to be able to have points throughout the process that let us know we are making progress. Progress is one of the most motivating things that we know of for people, so it makes sense to bring attention to the progress that our teams are making.
Secondly, there are some pieces of work that will never be done. For example, your team development is not something that will ever be “finished”. You may complete a program, a project or a book, but there will always be more room for improvement. As I like to say, the opening line of the Lion King taught us that “there’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done”. It makes sense to take notice, then, of the progress that you make in your teams.
Celebrating milestones is a form of reflective practice that many teams can better utilise.
A few questions for you to consider this week:
Which milestones get celebrated in your teams?
How might your teams better acknowledge the progress that they are making?
When was the last time your team deliberately reflected on their good work?
P.S. A milestone for me next week is the first anniversary of my second book, Teamership.
I'm celebrating its first anniversary (traditionally paper for wedding anniversaries) by making it available in paper(back), ebook and audiobook formats. If you haven't already got yourself or your team a copy, please check it out. Here's what Lyndall Bushell, Chief Information Officer at Police Bank said about it:
"An uplifting read and instructional for a modern organisations, it spotlights organisation networks, the importance of fostering true collaboration within groups and elevates just how important the role of teamership is in organisational success. Keegan’s deep research and sharp insights into how high performing teams & organisations really work continues to make him a leader in this space.”
Thanks for the kind words, Lyndall!