Abe Jarjoura

According to Oxford, a “win” is:

noun

1. a successful result in a contest, conflict, bet, or other endeavor; a victory.”a win against Norway”Similar: victorytriumph

In an article published in the Harvard Business Review in May 2011 entitled “The Power of Small Wins” Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J Kramer argue that the power of progress is fundamental to human nature, but few managers understand it or know how to leverage progress to boost motivation.

They state that in a survey asking about the keys to motivating workers, they found that some managers ranked recognition for good work as most important, while others put more stock in tangible incentives.

Some focused on the value of interpersonal support, while still others thought clear goals were the answer. But interestingly, very few of the managers surveyed ranked progress first.

In an analysis of knowledge workers’ diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that is critical to performance) than making progress in meaningful work. If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that he or she achieved something, however small. If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is likely to blame.

Amabile and Kramer in that same article stated that when we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough. These big wins are great—but they are relatively rare. The good news is that even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously.

And many of the progress events the research participants reported represented only minor steps forward. Yet they often evoked outsized positive reactions

According to Oxford, as mentioned above, a win is a successful result. Whether professional or personal, big or small, it still is a successful result in something and warrants sharing with other members of the organization.

At Dental Care Team Group we have multiple meetings; morning huddles, Sync meetings that are conducted every week and include members of the management and executive team. We have a monthly sales or treatment coordination meeting, and we also have quarterly meetings for the whole staff together.

Each meeting has its goals and objectives, but they all have one thing in common; they all start with reciting some wins.

Starting the meetings by celebrating wins is a great way to set a positive tone right from the start. We encourage each attendee to share one win from the last week, whether it’s work or non-work related.

Celebrating these wins together can serves as a bonding experience with the team members and helps form relationships. 

In an article in Forbes titled “12 Smart Strategies For Celebrating Your Team’s Wins” the authors state that recognizing both the large and smaller accomplishments of teams and individuals encourages them to continue to strive and reminds them that leadership values their contributions.”

Prioritizing the celebration of wins together can foster a culture of recognition remembering that team members appreciate many different ways of receiving recognition and the leaders should drive recognition and celebrate wins in creative ways outside of using a formal program.

So this is how to change meetings into something that people look forward to attending: Recognize and let people acknowledge the “wins” in their lives.

Once this is done at every meeting, people will come with the anticipation of sharing what they just did, whether personal or work related and they will say what they are excited about.

This can change meetings from being this thing that people dread and think are wasted time killers to making them productive, exciting and a great experience for every member of the team,

The Harvard researchers pointed out at the beginning that having and sharing those wins will lead to continued progress in the business and increased satisfaction in work performance by the whole team.

What manager doesn’t want that?!

Abe Jarjoura D.D.S., M.S.

Founder: Dental Care Team Group

Founder: Control “Freaks”- A group for dentists who want to smile more