Let the celebrations begin.

We have just seen two weeks of celebrations at the Olympics. It's where we celebrate the coming together of the world, we celebrate the athletes and we celebrate the city hosting the games. It is such an enormous task, taking so long to construct and devise that we only do it every four years, even though the after glow is something we would like to feel all the time. Work can sometimes feel the same, as projects, initiatives and the daily grind take time to develop to a successful end. The end celebration of the project, if there is one, becomes a milestone worth aiming for but what if the project takes 6 months or a year to complete and then you jump onto the next undertaking, how do you keep up the motivation and engagement of the players?

Celebrate more often is the catch cry of many in the corporate landscape as they struggle with long implementations, long projects and long times between drinks. It's an absolute necessity to celebrate achievements within organisations but it is even more important to develop a culture that understands how to celebrate success and why it's important to do so more often. More often is the clue and here you need to segment your work load into achievable successes to keep your people stimulated and galvanise them into a team capable of continuing lengthy activity.

Celebrations needn't be the closing ceremony, or the opening for that matter but thoughtful collaborations that don't need the formality of the above and bring forth camaraderie to amplify the good work done so far. So far, is the guiding principle, as work continues unabated but can be refocused with milestone celebrations. Where milestones used to be just that, the distance marked over a journey, those markers today, have work connotations that require acclamation and attention as the spadework continues. Work is a challenge for everyone nowadays and people need more reasons to come to work

The more reasons you can find to celebrate success, no matter how small, the more chance you have of maintaining your workforce, giving your staff a reason to come to work and cultivating the right aptitude for continuing accomplishment. Sometimes it can be as small as celebrating the mere fact of getting this far in the business year and as no lesser light in business success Oprah Winfrey points out, "the more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

The more reasons you can find to celebrate, the more reasons you have to market and communicate with your customers, for they are just as important in the cycle of achievement. Set criteria for celebrating so that people can focus on attainable targets, make sure the right people are celebrated and honour them and their achievements accordingly. Often that needs to be more than a mention in the Friday office dispatch, so use imagination that includes upper management involvement, parties, photos, videos, lunch, vouchers, newsletters, customer involvement, music and if necessary, dancing girls. Leave no stone unturned in the search for a reason to celebrate.

When was the last time your work celebrated?