This is an occasion for celebrating success and rewarding those responsible for such positive performance. It should also be an occasion to look more closely into the factors that brought about such a happy result.

Indeed, we should take time to learn from success, with the idea of applying whatever lessons we can learn to many other operating units within the corporation or organization.

This calls for paying more attention to the results of the analysis of variance. We should put to one side the external factors that favored such good performance. For these we give thanks and for all the other winds that blew in our favor. We should then ask: To what extent were such factors offset by others that may have gone against us, and made the achievement of such good performance so much more difficult? Focus should then shift to internal factors, both favorable and unfavorable. Finally, we should be able to highlight those traits and characteristics that made our people to turn in the results they were able to achieve. All this should help us appreciate the quality of the people working in our corporation or organization. Did our investment in their learning and growth pay off? Were our internal processes fully supportive of their achieving commendable results? What about the other constituencies that may have benefited from such good performance?

The reason for going through all this very carefully is to lay a solid basis for even better results in the foreseeable future. From those who do well, so much more should be expected. From those who have shown they can deliver results, higher targets for performance should be set the next time around.

This becomes a fair proposition only if we secure the base for their success. And we can do so by giving due recognition and rewards. Indeed, we should do all we can to give them even stronger motivation to make good on whatever commitments they make. Beyond acknowledging their success, however, we should also be clear about the substance behind their success. Then we can proceed to do what we must: Reinforce those factors that were critical to their good performance, and remove the obstacles that may have stood on the way and prevented them from achieving even more.

Reaching a milestone simply provides us with a platform from which to move decisively towards the next one. Progress, after all, is a never-ending process. The journey towards our vision is long and arduous. That is why it is good practice to make a strategic stop and review what has been accomplished. That review enables us to do more than bestow honors on the deserving. It also enables us to catch a second wind that can propel those who perform to even higher levels of achievement.