This week at the School of Government we had a small celebration to commemorate our successful website launch. This project was initiated over a year ago with workshops to gain insight about who we think our clients are. We worked with faculty, staff, and clients to find out what we really wanted to see in the website.
This launch utilized people from the entire School to design it, review content, and implement. The process was long and not always easy. It's still not perfect, but it was one of the more collaborative projects that we have had school-wide. It was also necessary to upgrade.
Websites are a continual work in progress. However, after the initial launch and time for the dust to settle there was an opportunity to celebrate the work that had been done on the site. It is important to celebrate accomplishments and here's why.
Shows Appreciation
People work hard on their projects and deserve to be commended for the hard work that they do. In this case, the website launch required that everyone take on additional responsibilities in addition to their regular workload. That kind of dedication should be recognized.
Builds Morale
We are working towards a mission here at the School: One School. One Faculty. One Team. The idea is to create unity among employees as we work towards our mission. A project, like a website launch, involves everyone can build morale. The website could not be done without everyone's participation.
Propels Us Forward
When you accomplish a difficult feat (as painful as it might have been along the way) you often feel a sense of pride and satisfaction. Recognizing the hard work will encourage people to continue to do great work and move forward to the next project or mission. With an extra energy boost you will find you have more productive employees than before.
Reminds Us How Far We've Come
It's nice to be reminded about the leaps and bounds that we've made as an organization. We should celebrate milestones when we have them. I'm not saying that every time you do your job that you should celebrate, but going above and beyond and collaborating on a big project deserves a "pat on the back." It's nice to look back and say, "We accomplished that!"
Celebrating accomplishments doesn't have to take much. We had cookies, brownies, lemonade, and sweet tea at this celebration, and sometimes that's all it takes to say thanks.
Perhaps our website launch is not a great example, since it did cause a lot of pain, took a lot of effort, and is still a work in progress. I realize that some of the day to day editing is still somewhat strained. Still, I think that celebrating what we've done so far helps us move forward with something that is essentially a living and evolving thing. Here's to making the website better each day and a celebrating the dedicated faculty and staff that it took to get this far!