You may be thinking as you cross the finish line of a problem-solving process, “Isn’t celebrating really a waste of time and money? Especially now?”

It has quite the opposite effect, actually.

A celebration can be a much-needed pause that refreshes, reinforces, renews. That’s especially true if it rewards those whose good work is being acknowledged in ways that they value.

Your celebration doesn’t have to be lavish, expensive or lengthy.

But think of it this way: with all the attention that typically goes toward problems, and things gone wrong, you really do need to give success its due.

First, though, make sure that the success which is expected is actually real.

It would be embarrassing to hold the party first, and find out later that nothing party-worthy (or worse) occurred.

Pause to get these answers:

- Has the original problem been solved?

- How do you know that things have improved?

- How does this compare to your customers’ requirements for a solution, and with your goals for this improvement?

Second, figure out how you will sustain success.

It would also be embarrassing to hold the party, and then have your successful results disappear like a cloud broken apart by the first good, stiff wind.

Think these things through:

- How will you capture the changes and the process that created them so that others can repeat the results, as needed?

- What processes do you need to document? How? Do flowcharts, procedures, or process measures need to change to sustain this success?

- What’s the best way to communicate these updates to those who need them?

- Who will make these changes and communicate them? To whom? By when?

Next, plan the celebration.

- Who should be involved?

- Who should be recognized?

- What do they value most? In other words, what would be an appropriate celebration for them?

In one circumstance, a manager at a high tech firm was trying to recognize the good work of his team. His idea of an appropriate reward was that they’d get to make a presentation to senior management about their success.

But for his team, that added more stress, more work. And they were a far more reserved group of people than he was. All in all, it had quite the opposite effect from what he intended.

Create a celebration that motivates and celebrates the people who deserve acknowledgment.

Pay attention to the scale of the celebration.

Your company may be extra careful now, as many are, about how it spends its time and money. Create a celebration that is appropriate in cost, context, and scale with the achievement, and with other things going on at your company.

Be attentive to timing, as well.

If you hold the event too soon, success may not be fully in the books, yet.

But if you hold the event too long after success was reached, people may say, “The party’s fun, but I can’t remember what we’re celebrating!”

And there’s one more thing to consider.

If the project has not been successful yet, pause to regroup, as a team. Recharge, review and renew focus and commitment.

Figure out what is holding you back, needs to be accelerated or redone. Perhaps some part of the problem-solving process needs to be repeated.

For example:

- Did you define the problem correctly?

- Is the information you’re using complete and accurate?

- Can you need to redo the root cause analysis?

Whatever it is, figure out where you went off-course, or need to tighten focus, and try again. Soon, your success will be assured, and your celebration will, indeed, be well-deserved.

Here are a few articles worthy of a few minutes’ read.

They offer ideas and inspiration about process design, innovation, showing appreciation, and more.

Fast Company:
Designers, Take a Look at Evidence-Based Design for Healthcare

Forbes Digital Rules blog:
Apple the Outlier

Fortune:
Twitter Hits Tweenhood

Inc:
How Hard Could It Be?: Thanks or No Thanks

We all know good leadership when we experience it.

And we know it when we don’t.

Think back:

- Who’s the best leader you ever had?

- And who was the worst?

- What was the difference?

- Whether you’re a leader or a follower in the role you now have, how can you apply these lessons from your past?

Here are a few ideas from others about leadership at its best:

Leadership is the special quality which enables people to stand up and pull the rest of us over the horizon.
James L. Fisher

Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.
Warren Bennis

A good leader inspires others with confidence in him a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.
Unknown

Taking any idea from its fleeting first beginnings to successful final result takes talent, time, attention, persistence and more.

When a great idea shows up – whether as an ephemeral almost-an-idea-but-not-quite, or it appears as a fully blown vision – it must go through several basic stages before it is an actual product or service people can use and enjoy.

That can apply to anything – from a new business, a new computer, an advertising campaign, a home-baked chocolate cake, and much more.

Each great result starts with a good and engaging idea.

As I was preparing for one of the sessions in a mentoring program I was developing and leading with a colleague for members of a professional organization, Women in Consulting, I thought about my own process of turning ideas into action and results.

These are the stages I go through, and a few of the actions involved, depending on the particular project:

Ideate: Envision, orient toward customers, focus, begin to plan and design
Initiate: Organize, focus learning where needed, get resources, begin to produce
Implement: Work in a logical sequence, communicate, coordinate, check
Complete: Provide the finishing touches, cross finish line, “declare an end”
Market: Reach out, connect with people who can benefit from the product or service, and then deliver it
Refine: Refine, improve using feedback
Repeat: Capture lessons, store for easy use later, repeat the cycle

As I prepared for work with the mentoring group, I thought about these things:

- In which stages do things normally flow smoothly and quite enjoyably for me?

- Where am I likely to get stuck or feel uncertain, for one reason or another?

- What can I do to enjoy the stages where work is fun even more?

- How can I improve in the stages where the work is harder, less enjoyable, or the result is faster and better if I hire someone else to do it?

I turned those ideas into several exercises we used in the mentoring group.

You may find this framework and some of the exercises useful, too.

Here’s the first exercise. I’ll share others in future blog posts:

1. Think of a product or service you created for yourself or someone else, whether it was through your work or in your personal life.

2. Consider each of the stages of “Making It Real,” taking that good idea and turning it into something usable, useful, enjoyable.

3. In which stages do you find the work is easy? Where did it positively flow…even so much that you would call it fun?

4. In which stages did you get stuck, lack confidence, or stall, for any of many possible reasons?

5. How can you do more of what you do well, and enjoy most?

6. How can you improve in the stages where the work is hard, less enjoyable, or the result is faster and better if someone else does it?

I’ll discuss these stages and ideas for how you can move through them with greater ease and enjoyment in future blog posts.

Close to the finish line on a problem-solving process?

If so, make sure you don’t forget one easy-to-miss step that many problem-solving teams skip.

That’s when you create measures and other ways of knowing if the solution works, and continues to.

Consider this:

If you’d had better measures in place before this problem happened, could you have avoided all this clean-up work now?

Maybe not…but it’s worth a moment’s thought.

As you create the right measures, imagine you’re an archer, shooting your arrows of action at the bullseye of a target.

Create ways that enable you to know that you’ll hit the bullseye - instead of being off-center or possibly missing the target, at all.

Take the following steps to create strong measures and other management guideposts:

1. Select
2. Collect
3. Check
4. Refine or carry on

Here’s more detail about each phase:

1. Select

Having good measures means they’re well-aligned to what’s important to customers of the improvement you’re making.

You may have several types of customers for your problem-solving work. Each group probably has their own needs.

Take all these different – and perhaps competing needs – into account and prioritize them.

Here are a few thoughts about where to start:

Do customers of the improvement care about timeliness? Then establish measures of product or service delivery cycle time or delivery timeliness.

Is profit important? Create measures that focus on income and cost management.

If ease of use is significant, try customer satisfaction indicators, such as a customer survey or interviews.

2. Collect

Figure out the easiest way to gather the information you need, and to do so, consistently.

Then find the easiest way to present the information to those who will use it.

Information must be easy to get and easy to use if it is to work effectively as a significant management tool.

3. Check

Periodically evaluate the system of information you’re collecting to see if it works as well as you hoped.

Understand if you have the right early warning system in place to tell you what you need to know about whether the solution to the problem is working well – or working at all.

4. Refine or carry on

If the data and information guideposts you create show you that you need to change again, or continue to problem-solve, do so.

If you don’t, you’ll lose the goodwill and engagement of your team.

No matter what else is going on, you need the power of a unified and fully-invested team behind you.

Cap off the hard work of problem-solving.

Put good measurements in place to help you manage the problem-solving outcome to strong and positive final results.

You’re almost to the finish line if you’ve made it to the solution-finding phase of the problem-solving process.

Many people focus their problem-solving efforts on getting rid of just the symptoms, not the source of their difficulty – the problem’s root cause.

Once the symptoms are swept away – at least temporarily – the cause is left to simmer, and the problem bursts to life again at a later time…perhaps bringing more, bigger, and far messier problems along.

If you’ve done a good job of cause identifying, finding the solution can – but does not always – go fairly fast.

It can also be a creative and very satisfying part of the problem-solving process.

As you work to discover the solution, follow these steps:

1. Know your target

2. Generate several ideas for solving the problem

3. Choose the best solution for your circumstance

4. Create the implementation plan

Here’s more about each phase:

1. Know your target

First, think about the cause of the problem:

- Is it the only one?

- Does the problem occur 100% of the time when this cause happens?

Now, consider the constraints on the solution you implement:

- What limitations do you have for the solution you choose?

- Of these constraints, which one is the most significant one to consider as you design or choose a solution?

For example, if cost is the primary issue you must consider, the solution you choose may be very different than if speed of implementation is most important to you.

2. Generate several ideas for solving the problem

Take a few minutes to think about the ideal solution.

You may or may not be able to implement that ideal, but consider it.

Think of at least 2-3 possible solutions, if you can. This gives you a range of possibilities, and tunes up your creativity, which may yield more and better ideas than the ones you originally considered.

This part of solution finding can go very rapidly if the cause is very well-defined, and the solution constraints are clearly spelled out and prioritized.

You may find that, having done excellent preparation for this phase, solutions are now so clear that they suddenly become very obvious to you.

3. Choose the best solution for your circumstance

Of all the possible solutions you discovered or designed, which one is the best match for the solution target you set?

Test your answer. Ask yourself:

- Will this solution make the cause go away, if it is possible to eliminate it?

- Does this solution fit our criteria for one we can implement?

- Does it meet the customer requirements of those who will benefit from this change or process improvement?

If you have any questions about the suitability of your solution, now is the time to ask them.

Don’t wait to be surprised (and possibly dismayed by what you find) during implementation.

4. Create the implementation plan

Decide who needs to be involved in implementation in order for it to go smoothly, and for your solution to be effective.

Involve them in creating and finalizing the implementation plan.

If you don’t – if you create and then dictate an implementation plan that requires their resources and cooperation – you may find that the work can’t be done within the time and resources available to do the job.

And don’t be surprised, in that case, if you have lost a lot of goodwill, time, energy and other valuable resources in the process.

Take the time now to engage the necessary input and support for the implementation plan.

It may save significant time and expense in bringing this problem-solving cycle to a successful end.

I’ve known how powerful visioning practices are for individuals and groups, since long before I became a consultant.

I first used an exercise like this when I was preparing to find my first post-college job, uncertain about life out on my own.

In my consulting practice I frequently use large-scale group graphics and facilitation practices with teams.

I help them create visions, clarify their values and the most essential parts of the company which they want to retain in the midst of planned or necessary change.

We turn those visions into strategic plans, and action plans and clear follow-up practices.

Variations of visioning, whether used individually or as part of a team visioning and planning process, can be surprisingly clarifying and powerful.

Visions can be lots of fun to create, too, providing much insight and energy to help you move forward when you haven’t, for some reason, been able to do so before.

If you’re in the market or in the mood for a new vision of success, here are two small exercises you can try to kick-start the process.

Both are adapted from “Visioning, Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams,” by Lucia Capacchione

1. Create a focus phrase.

Find a few words that clearly express what you most want in your business, or some part of your life.

As Lucia Capacchione, author of “Visioning” notes, “When your mind starts chasing all over the place, the focus phrase is the still point you return to. You let extraneous, distracting, and disruptive thoughts go their own way. Instead of allowing your mind to roam about and take control, you take charge of it. You decide where you want your thoughts to go and where to put your energy.”

If you’re unsure of what to use, you could start with a question:

- What’s in the year ahead?
- What kind of business do I really want?
- Who is my ideal customer?
- Who is the reader for my first book?

Or if you know, you could use something more definite, such as:

- My ideal 2010
- My ideal business
- My ideal customer
- The reader of my book

And you can use it for other phases of your life:

- My next trip
- My ideal home (or office)
- My perfect relationship
- The new me

Capture the focus phrase in some way, such as by writing it on a 3×5 card you can carry with you and look at frequently. It can help you make decisions and discriminate about how to spend precious and limited resources, such as time, attention, energy, money.

For visioning purposes, use the phrase to help you select images that support your focus area, such as in the next exercise. It can be very clarifying because you will find that images quickly support the focus phrase and goal for you, or they don’t.

2. Research: Grab images and words that grab you

- Collect images from magazines, direct mail, the newspaper, or other sources that express a specific dream, wish or desire from which you can later create a collage, if desired, using simple art-making tools such as poster board (whatever size you wish), glue sticks, colored markers.

- Using your focus phrase, start paging through your collection of photos and phrases. Cut out images and words that clearly express your focus phrase or theme.

- When you are ready to start assembling a college – if you choose to do so – select the pictures and words that “leap off the page at you,” or express most strongly what you seek and hope to create and experience.

- Don’t think much about your choices or analyze them. Just focus on your theme and go with your intuition and feelings.

- If the image or phrase grabs you, grab it. Don’t edit at this point. Keep your mind open, keep your imagination free. If thoughts of obstacles start trying to creep and take over, let go of them for now. You can do the editing and winnowing process later, if you find the process valuable so far, and want to do more with it.

I’m always on the search for new and good ideas, positive thought provocation and business inspiration.

Here are a few recent articles that are worth a quick read, for different reasons:

Harvard Business Review:
How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity

Business Week:
Companies That Are Taking Risks in the Recession

Inc.:
Measuring Your Workforce to Build a Winning Team

New York Times:
On Will Wright’s Team, Would You Be the Solvent or the Glue?

I’m co-leading a six-week mentoring group with Desiree Lehrbaum of Lumen Consulting for members of a professional organization, Women in Consulting.

One of the subjects in a recent mentoring session was how to overcome “stuckness” and procrastination.

I shared ideas with the group of a few of “stuckness busters” that work for me. They’re ideas you may be able to use, too.

1. Increase the pull of your vision and goals

Stop pushing. Increase pull.

Strengthen the lure of the future you’re moving toward by remembering, creating or refreshing your vision of success. I’ll share a few visioning exercises you can use in future posts here.

2. Remember a time when you were unstoppable, despite odds

Think of a situation when nothing, absolutely nothing was going to – or did – stop you from reaching a significant goal.

It may be especially motivating to remember a time when you were successful, even though people around you didn’t think you would be (almost all of us have an experience or two like that, I’ve found).

- What did you do to push through?

- How did you view your goal, role, daily tasks?

- How did you measure your success and keep yourself encouraged along that challenging path?

Try the tools or ideas that were successful for you then, and apply them to your current situation.

3. Do a periodic “satisfaction audit/recalibration”

- List the things you need to do and want to do today.

- Estimate the time each task will take, and estimate how much satisfaction (on a scale of 0-100%) you think each task will give you.

- At the end of the day, record the actual time and your actual satisfaction from each task or activity.

- Note the surprises and recalibrate your sense of what brings you satisfaction, or makes you happy.

Did you find, for example, as many people do, that you got much more satisfaction out of completing one of the tasks you were avoiding, rather than spending more time on the activities you had been using to avoid it?

4. Look at your fears honestly. Respect them but move beyond, step by step.

Be honest.

What is it that you fear about success, or the path there?

Are you afraid of leaving something or someone behind?

Are you afraid that you’ll be giving up more than you gain?

Or are you afraid that the price of staying “there,” once you get “there,” will be higher than you want to pay?

It could be something else, entirely.

Your fear may be telling you that you don’t, honestly, want to reach the goal you’re working toward.

If that’s the case, it’s better to know it now, and turn your attention to other uses of your precious time, energy and other resources.

On the other hand, when you’re honest about your fear, it may show you that you definitely DO want to reach the goal, but the process of change and making your way there is uncomfortable…which would not be surprising.

Change feels different.

Sometimes it’s nothing more than that.

If that’s the case, plan and take steady actions to build comfort, step by step, and notice when you have.

5. Realize that when your impatience with not changing is higher than your fear, you’ll change

A little well-placed impatience with yourself can work wonders.

Not always.

But sometimes, that’s all you need to leap over the distractors, the tactics of avoidance, to move ahead.

Look forward to looking back and, well, maybe laughing a bit at yourself, when you realize that nothing but habits (which can be very powerful…simple though they are) were holding you back.

Look forward to the moment when you realize that you did, in fact, have the power and wherewithal to usher in and put in place habits that were better, and in the long-run, led you to success.

6. Accept yourself, yet hold yourself to high standards, and work toward high expectations

I’ve listened to many people describe their frustration about the process of change, and noticed how a good percentage of them express great anger toward themselves at not changing as much or as fast as they’d planned.

Their emotions go far beyond a little well-placed impatience with themselves.

We often forget that to make progress, we have to make peace with who we are, where we are, and with what is.

When we do make peace with present circumstances, strangely, sometimes almost mysteriously, we are released from the inability to take the action we want or know we need to take to make the progress we expect.

Once we are accepting of ourselves, as we are, where we are, doing what we are doing, we are free to go.

7. Move something.

Literally.

Move something.

It could be something you want to get rid of, store, donate, or share with someone else.

It could be yourself.

Or both.

Just move something.

Build forward motion, and do it again.

Soon, momentum and the habit of moving ahead will carry you forward, itself.

8. Pause periodically to notice and celebrate all you have done so far

You’re on the path, at least. Some people never get off the sofa or out the door to get that far.

Celebrate what you have done, learned and achieved.

Pat yourself on the back now and then.

Pause to refresh and celebrate.

You may find that was the very thing you needed…a little acknowledgment of all your hard work – not from someone else – but from yourself.

What ideas and tools do you use to move beyond “stuckness” or procrastination?