Chapter 20: Making Change Easier 333
Celebrating and closure
Many goal-setting processes go into great depth, talking about well-formed
outcomes, planning the road map, and taking the first step. Not many talk
about the last step or closure. Admittedly, closure isn’t the last step in the
grand scheme of things, but integrating a last step to signal the end of a
phase in a project or the project itself can be very useful.Any change requires focus and the expenditure of huge amounts of physical
and emotional energy and puts people under considerable stress. This
stress can be distress (bad stress) or eustress (good stress, what Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, the author of several inspirational books, calls flow). In
either case you need a period to recharge your batteries. Getting closure
releases the tension of concentrated work, signals the end of a phase, and
gives you permission to move on to the next challenge.End a project – which could be work at home (such as having your garden
landscaped) or at work (where you’re involved with improving productivity
within a team) – with a debrief. You could examine the following:✓ What went well?
✓ What could have been better?
✓ What lessons were learned?
✓ What will you do differently next time?
Remember to congratulate the team (even if that team has only one
member – you) and finally make sure that you celebrate!