Acknowledge makes a heart happiness
Taking care of our mental health during the pandemic has not been easy. This global situation has made us feel so stressed.
Recently, a study published by Harvard University found that 57% of people experience increased anxiety and 53% of us are more emotionally burn out. These types of emotions arise when we lose some form of stability in our lives, especially when there is a high degree of uncertainty that affects social protection, the economy, employment, etc.
Emotions such as fear, stress and burnout began to emerge due to the pandemic, negatively impacting our well-being and transcending our team. Of course, these emotions are not a funny thing. We changed from face-to-face to virtuality, recognition went to the bottom step, the line between work and private life is almost non-existent, and the organizational culture blurred in a certain way.
Our Projects area is made up of 9 people, who work for a company in the Financial sector and whose responsibility is to manage projects and software products for Latin America.
We had to organize an activity for team development together with a couple of co-workers. There a question arose among many questions, what can we do to minimize the impacts of uncertainty on our well-being generated by the isolation established by the Government?
After brainstorming and various discussions, we converged that gratitude is an emotion that connects us and an excellent way to recognize the contributions we make to our co-workers daily.
This made me remember the practice Kudos Box & Kudos Cards.
If you want to know more about this practice, I invite you to visit the following link.
The goal of the practice is to acknowledge someone else’s work in writing and in public, breaking down hierarchies and encouraging everyone to offer positive feedback.
The practice was performed remotely and for that reason, I made a variation from Kudos Box to Kudos Wall. Here are some simple steps:
· Wall. I designed a dashboard in a Collaboration tool that was visible to everyone. In our case, we use the Miro tool.
· Identity. I designed the number of frames according to the number of participants in the practice. In our example, I previously asked for a photo to represent the space on the board, delimited by a square. One option is to write the name of each partner, instead of the photo.
· The cards. Kudo Cards are cards that represent expressions of appreciation and gratitude, to which you can add the reason for the recognition. For our practice, we use virtual cards. Here I share the link to a website. It requests each participant to personalize their card. You could see more information here.
· Write. Each participant chose a card and personalized it for each co-worker with a pre-established expression and wrote the reason for recognition and gratitude. Later, the link was copied and pasted in each box according to the co-worker. Another option is to write on a post-it the reason for the recognition or gratitude. For this activity, a limited time is established according to the number of co-workers (I suggest 2 minutes for each co-worker).
· Post it. During this moment so expected, each participant was invited to open their camera and expressed in public to another co-worker their reason for recognition and gratitude voluntarily. For our case, we use the corporate tool Microsoft Teams. Other tool options that you can use for the session are Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet.
For this activity, we had the support and participation of the Leader of the Projects area, who invited all the co-workers of the area to the session.
As a facilitator, I learned that predesigned Kudos Cards are a tool that facilitates recognition towards others. I also learned that saying “thank you” drives intrinsic motivators and creates an environment of trust and collaboration.
I was listening to team members about their learning, who mentioned:
· The team learned and remembered that saying “thank you” makes everyone’s heart happy. The faces of some co-workers changed to smiles and jokes flowed during the practice.
· The team understood that pre-designed cards such as “good job”, “congratulations”, “thank you”, “well done”, generate feelings of happiness in a colleague showing appreciation for their actions.
· The team learned that every action or behavior we take is a valuable opportunity that builds trust and promotes collaboration within the team.
· The Area Leader asked the team to express their personal or work situations voluntarily. The idea is listening and helping to resolve the situation.
· The Area Leader learned that this dynamic is a tool that improves the organizational climate.
As I like experimentation, here are some experiments that I will:
o My next experiment with this practice will be done face-to-face in a park or private place.
o If I have to do it virtually, my next experiment with this practice will be to change the photos and names to superheroes.
Additionally, for the next facilitation, I would limit the public acknowledgment to a specific time. For instance, last 2 weeks or last month. The other steps would be carried out in the same way to facilitate the reflection by each co-worker.
Below some of the results obtained by the team:
o Each participant identified what support they could get or provide from their role and responsibilities to the other co-workers in the area.
o Some members write “thank you” on chat or by email when they find that another co-worker collaborates in the solution of a problem or improves a process. e.g. Improve a report voluntarily.
o The Area Leader defined make meeting every week to carry out this type of fun practices for the team development.
o The Area Leader sends a weekly survey asking questions about personal and family physical and mental health.
o Other area leaders heard the results of the practice and requested support in order to facilitate in their areas.
Dear Reader, if this is the first time you read about these practices, I encourage you to delve into them to have fun responsibly and change your stress and burnout for the laughter and joyful hearts of your team members.
If you know about Management 3.0 practices, I encourage you to acknowledge the good things that your team members do frequently. As you will see, it will generate trust and collaboration within your team.
If you have used this practice before, I encourage you dear Reader to do the repeated practice so that saying or writing “thank you” to be the DNA of the organization.
Lastly, I want to invite you to use the Kudo Box or Wall and Kudo Card to contribute to mental health and promote collaborative and trusting environments within your work teams through recognition and gratitude for their actions and behaviors. This practice will give a happy heart to your team.
