Often in agile we are so focussed on improving and finding the next impediment to solve that we forget how far we have come. Most importantly we forget to celebrate the small victories we achieve each day.
Recently we had a skype chat with agilesensei and he mentioned a great technique he uses on nearly all his kanban boards. It’s a Ready to celebrate column. It comes just before done, but it’s an important extra step because the whole team take a short moment to acknowledge and celebrate what they have achieved.
I often see new teams naturally do this, because the idea of finishing a small concrete piece of work is astonishing compared to how they have worked in the past. But somewhere along the line it becomes the norm and we stop recognising the amazing work we are doing. If that’s true then add a ‘Ready to celebrate‘ column to your board, and celebrate each time a story is done. It doesn’t have to be huge, just a cheer at standup works well.
We tried it out recently on our video project. After each video was complete the whole team high fived and cheered. It seems silly. But it was great fun, we felt a sense of achievement and it provided a great way for the whole team to know exactly how far we were from our goal.
I like the team celebration, but it must be supported by Product Owner and management acknowledgement of good work done. Public recognition of a job well done means a lot to a team, and it mustn’t only be up to the team to recognize their successes internally.
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