Kathleen Fitzpatrick, known as Miss Fitz, is a third grade teacher at Holy Trinity School in Washington DC. She is also a former college basketball player at Rutgers University.
This past December, she promised her students they would all get hot chocolate if she hit a half-court shot during recess.
Miss Fitz told ESPN, “I usually do play basketball with them at recess and I don’t really take it lightly. I play as hard as I can. And I just picked up a ball, and I said if I make this — it was a Friday afternoon — and I said if I make this shot we’ll have hot chocolate on Monday as a class. I just launched it and it went in.”
The viral video of this inspirational and heartwarming moment is shown below:
A moment those kids will never forget 🥰
Third grade teacher Ms. Fitz promised her class hot chocolate if she made this shot ☕️
Way to go, Ms. Fitz!
🎥: htsgeorgetown/IG pic.twitter.com/wqnc22vNEZ— CBC Sports (@cbcsports) December 23, 2021
As I watched this video over and over again, the celebration and pure joy of the class reminded me of L. Ron Hubbard’s quote, “Morale is boosted to high highs by accomplishment. In fact, it can be demonstrated that production is the basis of morale.”
I agree with Hubbard. While chemistry and emotional intelligence are important ingredients, they are not the basis of morale. Accomplishment is.
Have you ever noticed that when a sports team wins a championship, everyone is hugging, celebrating, and pouring champagne on each other regardless of their relational dynamics? Similarly, have you ever been part of an organization which fought like cats and dogs throughout the year but still achieved its annual corporate objectives? It was likely a fun Christmas party when bonuses were handed out.
Why? Morale is in accomplishment.
I am confident Miss Fitz’s class never celebrated like that over standardized test scores. But when she hit that shot, as Hubbard would say, morale was boosted to high highs by her accomplishment.
Do you want to see morale improve in organization? You can try team building experiences. Go ahead and improve your internal communications. Create performance improvement plans. Bring in free lunch. Start a rewards system. These are good ideas and all will help to some degree.
But nothing improves morale like accomplishment.
The best thing you can do to improve morale in your organization is HIT A GOAL!!! Sales something. Obtain some new clients. Invent a new product. Break new ground. Solve a problem. Accomplish something.
That will solve your morale problems.
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