Lean Quote: Celebrate Your Successes

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"It's when ordinary people rise above the expectations and seize the opportunity that milestones truly are reached." — Mike Huckabee

Long ago, ancient Romans placed stone pillars called “obelisks” along the sides of roadways. Typically, the stones were placed a mile apart. Each “mile stone” was given a unique number, serving as a mile marker.

Today most people are familiar with the word “milestone,” but we use it in a slightly different way. Our modern-day use was inspired by the Romans’ ancient practice. Just as Roman mile stones helped travelers know how far they had come on their journey, our modern use of this expression does the same thing.

Instead of marking our journey on an actual road, however, milestones mark significant events in our lives. People reach milestones throughout their lives. This week I reached a couple on this blog: 1) 1000^th Blog Post and 2) 5thYear Anniversary Blogging.

Reaching milestones is something that must be rewarded. We tend not to recognize our successes, when we should. Celebrate your successes, each and every one of them.

When you've reached a goal that your organization or initiative has worked toward for a long time, or that acts as an organizational milestone, it's important to recognize that achievement. Within the organization, such recognition helps to build commitment and to provide motivation to employees. In addition, recognition adds to and maintains the organizational culture, history, and myth.