Motivate with project recaps

If the people on your team don’t feel like they’re getting results, they’ll lose their motivation. So when your team accomplishes a task or a goal, let people know about it.
Suggestion: Project recaps provide the vital finishing touch to any team effort. A
project recap should answer the following questions:
1. What was the original project goal? To pave six miles of cracked interstate
highway.
2. What made it difficult and/or important? Unseasonably hot spring weather made it hard. The impending summer vacation traffic made it urgent.
3. Who worked on the project? Three five-member crews headed by Pat, Chris and Terry.
4. What made the person(s) right for the task? Their record for meeting repair deadlines is the best in the department.
5. What were the good aspects of the project? (Pinpoint individual effort.)
Chris’s jackhammer team worked overtime four days in a row.
Terry’s grader driver discovered a new technique for preventing crumbling shoulders.
6. How did you resolve any unexpected problems? Pat’s crew pumped
concrete at night to fill three eroded sections.
7. What aspects of the project made you proud of the team? It was the fastest time ever recorded for paving so much highway.

Recaps are simple but powerful motivators. Why? Few things are as satisfying as being able to say, “We did that, and I had a part in making it happen.”
— Adapted from Coaching, Mentoring and Managing, William Hendricks. Career Press.