Power of small wins

The motivational power of celebrating small progress wins is a key ingredient in successful transformations. Many tend to focus on and celebrate only big achievements. However, research shows that creative teams found ways to create micro-moments of celebration while maintaining motivation.

I found the work of Harvard prof. Teresa Amabile, ‘Power of Small Wins’ very compelling on this topic. Progress in a workday towards a meaningful goal is more motivational than other things like inventive systems, etc.

I like the story of Jerry Seinfeld, who became one of the world’s top comedians. At the beginning of the year, he hung a big calendar on the wall, and on every day that he wrote new material (no matter how long), he noted a big X, visually tracking his progress.

There are many ways to carve out daily, weekly, monthly progress milestones to celebrate. I like to regularly ask everybody in the team about the progress of last week, month, or quarter, followed by a round of applause, hand out MVP-awards, etc. We do many more things for the wider organisation to break up larger goals, create celebration moments, etc.

What are your best practices in creating micro-progress win moments and motivation?