Celebrating is a rite as old as humanity. Everyone knows what it is, what it is for and what it is cool. But, do we use it to our advantage at work?
Celebrate comes from the Latin verb celebrare derived from the adjective celeber. In its origin was, crowded, frequented, numerous and abundant. And it was the antonym of desertus, deserted and abandoned. Something like a wasteland.
Once we have discovered the antonym, my initial question before this rite is, Why do not we celebrate ?, or rather, for what noses do we celebrate?
As we have been able to investigate in our work, there are several beliefs about the celebration. These are some of the common ones, and the intermeshing ones because they are absolutely real:
§ “If we celebrate, we are not perceived as professionals”
§ “We do not have time to celebrate”
§ “We do not know how to celebrate”
§ “I do not know how to do it well”
§ “If they see us celebrating, those of the other department are going to get their fingernails”
§ “I did not know what was important”
Let’s clarify that a belief is a mental construction on reality that may or may not be true, but that we also assume as true and impact on our behavior and our way of understanding the world. Beliefs are transferred between people and can even connect to each other as a neural network creating very powerful collective messages. They are beliefs that make up culture.
But they are not immutable; a belief is not an axiom, so we can play a simple inquiry to each one and see what happens, let’s go there!
“If we celebrate, we are not perceived as professionals”
When we are looking for a great professional, is the lack of capacity for celebration a useful competition? MMM. Maybe not.
“We do not have time to celebrate”
No doubt that time management is very particular and also, there does not seem to be a magic recipe to ensure that we do it impeccably. But do not you think that if we have time to reprimand others, to have meetings and meetings, and to see our social networks a couple of times a day, to say that we do not have time is at least doubtful?
“We do not know how to celebrate” – “I do not know how to do it to do it well”
Do you know someone who is famous because of the bad that is celebrating? Me neither.
The only temptation I had when thinking about this was at a time when my brother gave me a car extinguisher for Reyes. But no, not even, he is a great celebrator, one of the best I know. A hug, brother, thank you for trying to save my life.
“If they see us celebrating, those in the other department are going to get nails”
Could be. But, really, how many times have you experienced it? Do not you think that before a healthy celebration, if there is another’s anger, that puts us on the track of some internal mismatch of the organization? Think about it, for the price of a celebration, in the worst case, a more serious problem will emerge and you are faced with the opportunity to find a shared solution.
Beliefs, while sometimes relieving us and giving us security, often limit us. Inquiring about them and questioning them will help us grow in possibilities.
If you’ve read this far, please take a few seconds to see where you are, and your team with all this. And to help you, let’s go with the contributions chapter.
In the physical sphere, when we celebrate, we produce and release endorphin, serotonin, and dopamine, which, among other things, are respectively responsible for inducing happiness, balancing the mood and promoting motivation. Who does not want that for a team?
When a team is celebrating a milestone, in reality, indirectly, it is making a stop, is shaping a part of its history and cutting its way into iterations or cycles. There is nothing worse for a team than to be in a monotonous and flat continuum. Work cycles increase awareness, awaken attention and renew purpose.
Celebrating is the perfect vehicle to make sense of recognition. And not only individual but collective.
Celebrating translates into a better climate. But what is more important, it is a tool to connect people, develop threads, sometimes subtle and invisible, but which unite us very strongly. Sometimes we are so concerned about being cohesive and identified with the common project, that we develop thoughtful plans that involve large investments in the end to remain serious. Let us think that people, deep down, have simple needs, and often, less, is more. Of the best moments that we have stored in the retina, many are of coffees, surprises and moments of shared ecstasy.
Celebrating a job success is a resounding self-affirmation exercise that directly impacts on improving individual and collective self-esteem. ¡Auuuuuuu!
It is not necessary to make large investments of money or time to celebrate, it can be as cheap as a hug or as fleeting as a ray.
Yes, I hope that the celebration is respectful with the entire team and as frequent as the successes we reap. To celebrate or not to do so, has a very direct correlation in the income statement and in the way we reach them. And it’s not trivial. I have calculated that, discounting vacations, libranzas and hopefully few medical losses, on average we spend about 14 (full) years of our life working. There is nothing. Now ask yourself, do not you think we should celebrate often? Come on, take a piece of paper and a pen, open an agenda, count outstanding celebrations and call a coffee, a beer or a group. If you see that the team next door looks at you out of the corner of your eye, upload the bet and invite them. Take the celebration seriously, the smile is part of the performance.