Have you ever attended a great party .ie. one that began splendidly? I am sure you have. How about a party that ended on the same note?
I guess it is relatively easy to have a great party as all you need is to keep the excitement up. The way to do this will depend on the type of party...birthdays, homecoming, bachelor party, etc. One just has to fill up the time with a stream of exciting activities, humour and free flow of food and drinks.
However, regardless of the type of party or how exciting it was for 5 hours straight into the night, one has to bring it to a closure. How one ends a party is as important as how the party was started in the first place. So, closure is important and just like the beginning of a party that needs careful planning, so does the closure.
You know, I never talk about anything in this blog if it has no relevance to business and work. You are right! There is much to learn from party closures to organizational closures. I am not talking about closing down the organization of course. I am talking about the closure that is needed for every organizational change, transformation and new direction. Without an effective closure an organization can go on forever 'branding' or perpetually 'merging' or eternally 'transforming'.
The closure is as important as the beginning. Did I say that already? Well, its important so I am going to say it yet again : Closing is as important as opening. Most organizations do begin a change effort (in all its dimensions) quite well. They invest much resources into it. Every step is planned carefully but yet many of these efforts turn out to be 'failures'. In truth, they are not failures...not yet anyway. They are just probably change efforts that have yet to find an appropriate closure. People are still in a flux. The environment is still dynamic. Change fatigue may also have set in but for all good purposes, it is yet to qualify as a failure. Not yet anyway.
So, how to find an effective closure. The following may form a broad framework:
1. Have a time frame. Define the time frame clearly and realistically. The words ' THE END' must appear somewhere!
2. Review. Review not the success or failure at this stage but review each person's contribution so that each and everyone is clear about his/her contribution and feels that what was needed to be done, has been done. In other words, a change effort or any other organizational initiative will not 'end' if there is a judgment of good and bad before an evaluation of what and who.
3. Celebrate. Celebrate the closure first regardless whether the initiative has succeeded or not. Have another celebration when a judgment /measurement of its success has been made. Surely, our people's 'effort' needs to be celebrated as much as the 'results' of that effort.
4. Appoint closure agents. These are people who can heal wounded egos and hurt feelings. They are the ones who will bring everybody together and make everyone focus on what truly matters : Team spirit. These closure agents should never be the highly driven and task oriented ones in the team. It should be those who are more accommodating and people oriented.
5. Say thank you. If you are the leader of the initiative, say 'Thank you very much people'. Sending them off to Pulau Tioman as a gesture of appreciation is not the same as them hearing you say 'Thank you'. Do you really think they need you to get them to Pulau Tioman and for all that work too?
Hope that helps those of you struggling with how to close the project that you are on now.
Well, for people of Tamil origin all over the world, the year is coming to a closure. A new beginning will burst forth. For us, Malaysian Tamils, we have a few more hours for our closure before the New Year takes its birth at 7.25pm. I wish you success, prosperity, health and wisdom. Most importantly, I wish you love.
God bless!
