“Time to drink Champagne and dance on the tables!”
I lead an anti-human trafficking organisation in the UK. My staff go to work each week in utterly dark situations but have to deliver a message of hope. It’s not an easy ask. We’ve had to find some way to remind ourselves that we’ve had lots of wins and that we’ll have more. The team has got to be able to get up every day not knowing what horrors will be described by the person sat across the table. A teenager describing years of sexual exploitation that borders on torture. A man with physical scarring from years of digging without tools in the frozen ground. In our country, on our watch. It’s not an easy ask.
So after every rescue we crack open a bottle of champagne and gather all the staff together and toast the life that’s been restored. I pick a member of staff I want to recognise and ask them to name the rescued victim. We raise a glass and carefully write that name on a label and hang it around the bottle’s neck. We keep the champagne bottles dotted all around our office, as simple reminders of every win - of every individual - for the days when we need them.
You’ve got to celebrate what you want to replicate.
We accomplish two things by celebrating. Firstly, we create unity. By gathering the whole team together at regular intervals we create an undeniable sense of team. Staff working on different projects, in different departments, get to come together and hear how the work they’re doing is literally changing lives. I learnt pretty quickly that unity is invaluable, particularly when your staff face struggle on a daily basis; whether with the dark nature of their work or with an establishment that can’t yet see what we’re about.
Secondly, we create vital clarity of purpose. When you work with people on the margins of society, you’re exposed to the profound level of need in the world, but we need to stay focused on what we do. To remain effective at identifying and removing victims from exploitation we can’t get side-tracked by other ventures, no matter how worthy. This is a hard lesson to learn for people who spend all day, every day trying with all their might to do good. It’s my job to help the team maintain their clarity of purpose; meeting together to raise a glass of champagne is as good a means as any. It helps us to remember the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’. That we are doing our part and doing it well.
You’ve got to celebrate what you want to replicate.
Put simply, where we focus, we grow. So it’s vital to remember who you are and what you’re about. In a world of deadlines, news cycles, beta tests and focus groups, that’s not as easy as it sounds. In our office, defeats are softened and victories sweetened by every bottle on the table and the lives they represent.
So every time you see me tweet, “Time to drink champagne and dance on the tables” - now you know. We’re celebrating what we want to replicate.
I believe every organisation can find value in celebrating.
