Cultivating Celebration
When was the last time you celebrated?
Maybe it was someone’s birthday, or a friend got a great promotion, or a baby was born.
What did it look like?
A cake and decorations? Gifts and story-sharing? A Zoom dance party?
Whatever the occasion, you did something special to mark it. Something that made it feel like a celebration.
How about at work?
Are you celebrating small and big wins on a regular basis?
Are you building celebration into your project plans and Gantt charts to make sure it gets done? (If you just re-read that line and thought “why would we do that?” then we have some chatting to do.)
Celebration is not frivolous or optional, it’s necessary.
This is especially true in the nonprofit and social impact sectors where we are often inundated with messages about how much work still lies ahead of us to fulfill our missions. And while celebrating can feel difficult in times of crisis or hardship, the psychological benefits of celebration can help us find renewed strength and purpose in recommitting to our work.
Cultivating celebration as part of your team culture
Whether you sit on the leadership team or are a leader among your peers, you can help create a culture of celebration that values team contributions, collective wins, and the energy that comes from recognizing progress as we keep pushing forward.
Here are five tips for cultivating authentic celebration and building it into your work:
Create a Ritual – for the past two decades, I’ve had the same “launch day” song. Anyone who’s worked with me during that time knows that Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” will be blaring through the office (or computer speakers) to mark the occasion and celebrate the fantastic work everyone has contributed. Over the years this ritual has given me something extra to look forward to and helps my team know that their work has been noticed, valued, and celebrated. I'm not just thanking them with my words - though that's important. I'm thanking them with the reminder that their work deserves celebration. Think about a ritual or routine you could start this summer that feels authentic to you as a leader and would genuinely support your team in creating some joy around the work.
Share the Impact – not everyone in our organization gets to hear stories of mission impact as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. While Mission Moments at all staff meetings can be a great way to share how the organization’s work is helping the community, I’ve found that the stories and celebrations that stick with people most are those shared through more personal communications. When a person you serve shares an email or social media post or voicemail about how much your work means to them – send it out to everyone on the team. Give everyone the heartfelt joy and purpose of knowing they’ve changed someone’s life.
Schedule It – don’t fall into the trap of thinking celebrations are “best” or “most authentic” when they are spontaneous. Scheduled celebrations – such as dedicated time in staff meetings, a monthly celebration chat, or a standing set of celebration moments built into project plans – can feel a little awkward at first, but that’s usually just because we haven’t flexed our celebration muscles all that often. By scheduling celebration, we’re both prioritizing it and practicing it in a way that enables it to become ingrained in the way we work - and the anticipation of the celebration can give us an added boost on tough days.
Create Celebration Spaces – in the Montessori education philosophy, there is a deep commitment to preparing the environment for the child so they can learn and grow to their full potential. We must bring this same mindset to preparing spaces for celebration. If you’re in the office, it could look like a whiteboard or “celebration station” where folks pin up great emails or share messages of encouragement. If you’re in a remote work environment, it could be a channel on Slack or Teams dedicated to sharing wins (big and small) with the whole group.
Don’t Forget the Small Stuff – when we’ve been working to pass specific legislation or build and refine a new program, the big milestones are often easy to see and celebrate. But those big wins are made up of tons of tiny wins along the way. Acknowledging and celebrating small wins helps us keep up the good work and reminds us of everything we’ve already done to make the bigger goal a reality.