When a gardener finds they have a highly successful plant they take steps to capitalise on that success for the next growing season. I was reminded of this recently via an article in “Gardening Australia” magazine where they showed readers how to harvest the seeds from this year’s most successful tomatoes and turn them into next seasons’ crop. In other words, free tomatoes! Gardeners love free plants of all descriptions, which is why they take cuttings of great plants they come across in other people’s gardens, hopefully with their permission but sometimes without.

We can do the same in the workplace garden except for us it isn’t about harvesting seeds, it’s about harvesting the lessons learnt from an event and figuring out how to use them in another context. Sometimes known as debriefing, the act of reviewing a project to understand what worked and how we can replicate it is the sign of a highly evolved organisation. It’s the same with getting testimonials from people who are happy with your work and using them in future performance reviews or to keep on file for your next promotional opportunity.

Effective leaders encourage their teams to do this kind of harvesting. They find ways to benefit from every success they have, knowing that success breeds success. That doesn’t mean they ignore failures, it’s just that they don’t make them the main focus.

Is there a recent success your team has experienced that you haven’t fully benefited from? What can you do now to maximise that positive learning experience and get something free to use for next time?

Tags: Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, Productivity, www.letsgrow.com.au