In courses like the School’s Community Development Academy, community development professionals are taught to celebrate small victories. Perhaps the victory involves a strong volunteer turnout for a neighborhood cleanup day; or perhaps an owner agreed to remove an unsightly vehicle from view of the neighbors; or perhaps a group of stakeholders agreed to meet and find common ground on development goals for the community. As it turns out, research shows that celebrating small wins is important.
When working with teams and groups, either internal to your organization or cross-functional teams it can be hard to sustain momentum and excitement for the project and goal- made more challenging when goals are long-term. By celebrating small wins, teams become more likely to have increased creative productivity, motivation, and happiness over the long run (Amabile and Kramer 2011; Ellis 2020). While it might seem unnecessary to celebrate seemingly slight progress when the final goal is still so far away, small wins have a major effect on individual and group engagement in a project (Amabile and Kramer 2011, Marchal 2016). Celebrating small wins not only produces happiness and a sense of success but also encourages individuals to continue pressing forward, building on the small wins along the way (Smith 2019). Too often we focus only on our shortcomings or failures, but when we focus instead on small wins, we are reminded we are headed on the right path forward, no matter how far away the end goal might seem (Ellis 2020).
These efforts are more successful when they are part of the culture of a group and are planned and used strategically. Part of these means identifying milestones to celebrate along the way. Through the use of milestones, it not only positions the group to celebrate small wins but helps them to ensure they are moving in the right direction. Building in time at meetings for acknowledgements, planning for regular communication about progress and accomplishments, or committing to moments of gratitude can all be ways to start this process. These should not take the place of larger celebrations of accomplishments but rather compliment and enhance.
Small wins are especially important when dealing with wicked problems. Celebrating small wins when working with wicked problems allows people to “embrace ambiguity, uncertainty, and interconnectedness and welcome new understandings” (Termeer and Defulf 2017). No matter how small a win might be, recognizing and appreciating it can launch a team forward and provide some respite from the complexity and frustration of dealing with a wicked problem. When we do not celebrate small wins, we risk losing innovative thinkers and potential creativity (Ellis 2020; Weick and Quinn 1999). Celebrating the small stuff is actually really big!
Willow Jacobson is a School of Government faculty member.