Source: Image of balloons, man celebrating with laptop, banner flags, men giving high five, gift, man leaning back, handshake, images by Video Scribe, License held by Jeff Carroll; Image of thank you note, Public Domain, http://bit.ly/1nNz2aJ.
Hi, I'm Jeff, and in this lesson, we'll talk about why it's important to celebrate a project once it's complete, so let's have some fun.
When a project completes, the project manager should provide the team an opportunity to celebrate their accomplishment. Sure, when a project is complete, it might seem as if everyone is ready to move on to other work, and while that's true, it's also necessary to take the time and relax before another project begins.
Team members might shift to other projects or assignments whenever their individual work is complete, so organizing a team celebration may be difficult. But it's still worth the effort because the project celebration can be a time when the project manager and the team reflect on the work that was involved, and it gives everyone an opportunity to acknowledge the time and the commitment given to create a project team.
It's also an opportunity to call out the efforts of individual team members. Now, a project manager should be careful when doing this since it's critical that the spirit of teamwork is maintained even during the end of a project celebration. However, if there are people who put in efforts that significantly impacted the project in a positive way, then now is the time to reward them.
A project celebration can take many forms. It might be a team meeting. It could be a lunch, dinner, maybe a picnic, or some other form of play. What is important is that it is a time when the project manager thanks the team for their contribution and praises the team for the work that they have done.
It's always good to include the project sponsor and the stakeholders if possible. They are members of the team, and the team would be pleased to receive their acknowledgement and their gratitude for helping meet the stakeholders goals.
Lessons learned might also be shared during the project celebration. The project manager should be sensitive to the fact though that some lessons learned are about the weaknesses of a project, and it might damper the celebration. This is a time for enjoyment and gaining knowledge from the project's experience can occur on a different day.
All right, time to celebrate! In this lesson, we discussed why project celebrations are an important part of the closing process. Thanks, and have a fun day.
