One thing we've done this year, which I never thought I'd do or agree with is "the bell".

Whenever someone prevents a piece of business from going to a competitor, they ring it. It started as a bit of a joke really, and I have to say that I was probably pretty damming of having it permanently - it's the sort of thing you'd see on "the office" or in Dilbert after all.

Putting my cynacism aside though, it made a real difference. After a few times I started asking the person "how much (was the business worth)" and saying well done

Five months on, and the ringer of "the bell" now has 40 people shouting "how much?" at them followed by a round of applause. It's also become something of a rite of passage for our new starters. Someone from the management team always goes and has a conversation with the person ringing the bell, find out what they did etc and to give them a metaphoric pat on the back

Oh, our persistency rates have also improved (although speaking as a statistician, the two may be uncorrelated!)

Definately worth the £5 spent on the bell.

posted June 18, 2009

Recognition is always important but it's more important now when companies are talking about reductions in pay, layoffs, and getting more work out of fewer people.

I try to make sure to call out what it is about the effort the person or team put forth that I would want them to repeat. Saying "good job" isn't enough. People want to know exactly what they did that aided in the success so they can repeat it. In a recent case, the teams I worked with stepped out of their normal process and took steps to collaborate often across functional teams. By talking with each other and sharing risks and concerns for their effort early, they figured out ways to avoid the risks and delivered the project in half the average time. In recognizing their efforts, I would want to recognize and encourage future collaboration, their sense of ownership for the project which drove them to stepping out of the normal (safe) processes, and sharing how their focus on delivering early impacted our Customers.

It saddens me when leadership allows focus on the "next big thing" before celebrating their recent successes. People want to know that their hard work, creativity, and personal risks were appreciated and value-add to the organization/company.

posted June 18, 2009

Far too often organizations focus on the failures and underachievers, and tend to take for granted successes and victories – particularly where there was a team effort involved, and particularly in tough times. They forget people seldom leave an organization for pay. A constant source of dissatisfaction is simple recognition.

A recognition technique that consistently works is to create a storyboard showing the journey to success from start to finish – with all the ups and downs; the obstacles overcome and the struggles through adversity. Be liberal with pictures. Make sure a picture of the team is taken at the end with all who contributed; post the story board in the hallway outside the CEO’s office; and give every participant a specially designed tack pin they can wear on their clothes and a certificate of accomplishment.

Story boarding is a common technique used for pre-visualizing a motion picture, but it works great for documenting and celebrating victories. It not only recognizes the people involved but it also communicates a success to the rest of the organization and becomes a motivator (nothing like a victory when in a down economy and all the news seems to fuel discouragement). The pins don’t have to be fancy or expensive - just something special and used ONLY for “SUCCESS” recognition.

posted June 22, 2009