Celebrating success & identifying the lessons learned

“Let us celebrate with wine and sweet words.”

—Plautus

Leaders of community led initiatives know how important it is to recognize and celebrate success. As important as it is to celebrate, it is also important to capture the lessons of why the success occurred and share those lessons with other leaders in the community. Such feedback can be given on a monthly / short term basis as well as at the end of a year or other milestone.

6 reasons why you should celebrate success at an event or function:

1. Assess progress and acknowledging the team’s work.
2. Identify areas needing more or less attention.
3. Celebrate “Quick Wins” and early achievements.
4. Show how you are “turning the curve”.
5. Update and motivate funders and other supporters.
6. Educate new leadership about the community’s past successes and challenges.

Tips on how to give feedback:

• Begin with positive information.
• Show graphs on your Outcomes and Measures. These can be outputs (stuff that has happened) and outcomes (results that have been achieved).
• Invite the Action Team and others to say how they react to the data rather than telling them what it means. This is more collaborative and will most likely be more insightful.
• Give anecdotal feedback and “stories from the frontline” to get across the qualitative flavour of the project and its progress.
• Ask the group to give any stories or anecdotes that haven’t been mentioned.
• Jointly identify areas needing more (or less) attention.
• Identify any lessons learned both positive and negative.
• End on a positive note celebrating “Quick Wins” and longer-term achievements, giving encouragement to the people working on the initiative. challenges.

Always remember, feedback sessions are meant to make your staff and volunteers want to work harder and make the initiative better, not to dishearten them.