After a successful project launch,
there is always at least one celebration,
usually two.
The first celebration
is for everyone.
That is,
everyone who touched the project
however briefly
or will touch the project
when things go wrong tomorrow,
everyone who supported the project
or will support one of your projects tomorrow.
This is the celebration with the slab cake
and sometimes pizza.
It is a big, happy, noisy affair.
The purpose of that first celebration
is to broadcast the project’s success
throughout the organization,
publicly thank your stars,
and show that helping you out on projects
will help people out career-wise.
The second celebration (if needed)
is smaller and quieter.
You take your core team out
for a lunch,
sometimes giving them a token
for working on the project
(a hat or a jacket or a laptop case),
and you sincerely thank your team.
If you have the second, smaller celebration,
always, always, always
have the first, larger celebration.
If you don’t,
you’ll tick off your not-so-visible project helpers.
Not a happy situation
(as one of my buddies is finding out this week).
You need those helpers.
You want them on your team.