One thing that I’ve been talking a lot about lately is how to manage and celebrate project success when you’re working in a virtual/remote team. In my previous projects we tried to arrange onsite meet ups towards the end of the project so that we could do a lunch/dinner together but this isn’t always feasible or an option. If you’re a Project Manager to a virtual team you could consider doing some of the following that is mentioned below:

I asked on Projectmanagement.com and Twitter what others did to celebrate success and it was great to see the reaction and responses from the Project Management community.

Ways to celebrate success:

1) Team “video” closing parties
2) Sending cakes/cards/little momento’s to say thank you/ good job!
3) Congratulation /thank you emails to the team

How to make it applicable to your project:

There are a few things that i’d recommend to make these examples relevant to your project:

1. Look at the size of your project and don’t do too much or too little to acknowledge your team
2. Consider the company culture/ team culture in what you decide. Would an email to them with their boss in CC be appropriate/ appreciated?
3. What’s your budget? It’s fine to have grand ideas about flying everyone in to the Project Closure Meeting or giving everyone bottles of wine but if your budget cannot stretch to that, then you might need to consider something else
4. Talk to your peers. What do they do to recognise success? What has/has not worked for them?
   1. This is vital if you are new to an organisation or want to try something new. It can be useful to see what has already been tried and what was successful or not.

Why is celebrating success important?

This may sound odd but there are a lot of Project Managers and organisations that do not celebrate success. They do not look at it as something that is important in a project and I’ve started a crusade to try and convince Project Managers to make an effort to celebrate their projects, teams and on a wider level. It is not just about celebrating your teams’ achievements but also about recognising the work that you have done, the value that you have delivered and what you’ve been able to achieve.