Our Thoughts - Kelly Bradshaw-Walsh

I think it’s fair to say that many people are feeling a bit tired. We’re operating in a strange space where the world is once again ‘open’, but things aren’t exactly normal. Many of us are trying to juggle business as usual with the ongoing repercussions of life after lockdown.

Carving out time for learning and reflection in ‘normal times’ can be challenging, but these circumstances make it harder, and something that I’ve noticed suffers even more is our capacity to celebrate success.

A few recent experiences prompted this reflection.  Firstly, listening to a small charity leader describing, proudly, the great work they do, but realising as he did so that they never really tell anyone about it (other than in funding bids). This time for reflection had given the opportunity to briefly stop thinking about all the things that need to be done and focus on what has already been achieved. It felt pretty good.

Secondly, in interviews with participants of the Youth Programme Quality Intervention Pilot, several people mentioned how the process of observing their practice against a structured framework had given them the opportunity to stop and reflect on what was going well, and to shine a light on it. They recognised that learning is not just about how we can get better, but also about spotting the good stuff – and then celebrating it.

Finally, in a piece of place-based research, I asked residents what they’d like to celebrate about their area (an area that is often talked about in negative terms) which led to some joyful conversations about the assets and strengths in that community. Again, it felt that taking time to celebrate was a positive and energising experience.

But why does this matter?  My hunch was that not taking time to celebrate our successes and assets (even the small wins) can wear us down and leave us feeling demotivated as we plough on to the next challenge.  It seems I wasn’t far off about the power of celebration; it has been linked to:

• Progress and motivation – recognising progress on milestones, even minor ones, in meaningful work can boost motivation and productivity.[1]

“Out participants’ thoughts, feelings and drives fared better when successes, even small ones, were celebrated and then analyzed for knowledge gained.”[2]

• Teamwork – several studies of sports teams have found that those who celebrate more have better chances of winning.[3]
• Happiness and positive emotions – outwardly expressing (or ‘savouring’) our positive experiences makes us feel happier and helps us to bond with those with whom we’re celebrating.[4]

As can be seen from my examples, this starts with noticing. Observing and recognising when good things are happening and consciously taking the time to celebrate them.

I recognise that celebrating successes won’t fix the challenges I started with, and I certainly don’t mean to trivialise the causes of these.  Rather, I hope for this to be a prompt that gets you to think about your recent wins, and the successes of those around you, and to celebrate them.  Perhaps it’s time to make celebration a more conscious part of our learning practices.

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[1] https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins

[2] https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40692

[3] https://plan.io/blog/celebrating-productivity-relationships/

[4] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/10_steps_to_savoring_the_good_things_in_life