Celebrating success vs. measuring success: why the difference matters

Yesterday, we received the wonderful news that one of our biggest global innovation projects has had its first patients enrol onto a new digitally-enabled service.

So much work has gone into getting it to where it is now from so many people, it got us thinking about the careful balance between celebrating the successes vs measuring success.

Naturally, getting new solutions/ projects over the elusive “go-live” line can be such a huge challenge that we often breathe a sigh of relief but can then be quickly disappointed if it doesn’t organically result in continued success.

But the reality is it’s only the starting line. And if everything goes well, there actually isn’t a finish line. So the question is, how do we celebrate these wins whilst balancing measures that give us the motivation to continue versus those that tell us how to move from the start to something truly successful and sustainable. And do we accept that these measures need to change along the innovation journey to help us to make the right decisions at that moment in time?

It’s right that we celebrate the early wins; this is important for team motivation and can be meaningful to validate the initial performance of a solution. But…implementation isn’t just the firing gun at the beginning of a race. It’s the sustained effort and energy needed to anticipate and respond to data-driven insights which enable widespread uptake of a new idea, now and into the future.