By Eric Mosley &
Derek Irvine
Eric Mosley and Derek Irvine write a fantastic book on ‘The
Power of Thanks.’ Below I have included
some highlights as well as momentous quotes.
I have purchased copies of this book for some relevant individuals in my
work environment.
Introduction to the
book and concept:
Culture is the heart and soul of any organization. Culture
drives competitive advantage. Culture is powerful, pervasive, and enduring….
culture makes the difference between excellence and mediocrity, between success
and failure.
Summary of Book Thesis:
It’s important to recognize high performers, but if you confine
your recognition program to them, you create a very small winner’s circle— one
already inhabited by engaged, motivated employees. Social recognition rewards
that top 10 percent (and they will still get the lion’s share of the high-value
awards). It also recognizes the 70 percent of people behind those top
performers who carry the organization every day. These are the classic unsung
heroes. They are the “Mighty Middle”— the people who dutifully attend to their
tasks, are consistently polite on the phone, and reliably complete work on
time. A broad improvement in company performance requires bringing these people
into the winner’s circle.
Definition of
Recognition Journey:
Achieving true recognition success happens through a process
we call the social recognition journey. Companies start out with small,
intuitive steps like publicly giving thanks for great performance.
This tactical
recognition is the most common form of recognition— the plaque on the
cubicle wall and a mention in the company monthly e-mail. It’s very basic, the
equivalent of placing a “like” notice on a Facebook page.
The next step in the recognition journey is enterprise recognition, which requires
applying a bit more structure and resources to a recognition program across the
entire organization. This is where many recognition programs include cash or
other awards, and HR departments track the recognition program. It gives better
results than tactical recognition because it’s managed in a quantifiable and
consistent way. And most organizations on the recognition journey stop there.
Strategic recognition
is a significant step forward because it aligns the entire program, from
funding recognition awards to defined reasons for recognition to capturing the
data that a program can provide to strategic goals. Strategic recognition is on
a par with first-rate financial controls or just-in-time procurement policies.
No longer a nice-to-have, it is the technology that enables a host of strategic
goals, just as financial practices and technology know-how enable strategic
goals. Social recognition is the mass
mobilization of all employees that’s pivotal to unleashing the full power of
recognition.
Part 1— Understanding Organizational Culture
We will describe the behaviors found in an effective culture
and how transactional factors among
people such as appreciation, recognition, and respect benefit all employees
individually and inspire the most productive attitudes and behaviors.
Chapter 1: The Rise of Company Culture
Summary: This
chapter explains how culture drives core values deep into an organization, and
why culture is the defining driver of today’s business environment.
Quotes:
A distinctive company
culture starts with a clear vision, but vision alone doesn’t establish and
sustain a culture. That happens when the values inherent in a vision inspire
emotions that then drive new behaviors. The right behaviors drive change.
Yesterday’s
differentiators are today’s commodities. In today’s rapidly changing and global
marketplace, only an engaged workforce creates sustainable, defensible
value.
Herb Kelleher, the
legendary cofounder and chairman of Southwest Airlines, believed “Culture is
what you do when people aren’t looking.” It’s how employees behave when they
step away from the power relationships in an organization and operate purely on
instinct based on their own values.
Creating a culture
means choosing a limited number of values that define the company as surely as
its products or logo do, and then encouraging expression of those values in
everyday behavior.
“Culture is a
slow-growing tree. In the beginning it needs protection. But after a couple of
decades the culture will be stronger than you are. You need to work with it,
not against it.… Culture is a powerful but fragile thing. If you burn down the
culture tree, it takes a long time to grow another one.” —Wally Bock, Three
Star Leadership
A strong
organizational culture is a competitive advantage in its own right. It attracts
talent. It promotes a winning spirit of optimism and energy.
Chapter 2: The People-First Workplace
Summary: Why does
appreciation matter to a company’s bottom line? This chapter demonstrates how
the power of thanks works with individual employees and across an organization
to create, encourage, and manage a chosen culture. We’ll show how and why
recognition enables employees and organizations to reach their fullest
potential, and we’ll discuss the latest research confirming an old-fashioned
idea: that happiness at work benefits organizations of all kinds.
Quotes:
William James, one of
the founders of modern psychology, wrote in 1896, “The deepest principle of
Human Nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
“Aside from pay, what
motivates and engages you at work?” Fifty-nine percent replied, “Praise and
recognition.”
In the context of the
modern organization, giving and receiving thanks is a sophisticated form of
communication in five ways:
1. Thanks identify the
right behaviors.
2. Thanks are
feedback.
3. Thanks break
through social and emotional barriers.
4. Thanks create trust
and social bonds.
5. Thanks feel good.
Study any annual list
of an area’s best workplaces and you’ll find similarities— great working
conditions, fair pay, work-life balance— and you’ll also find frequent
descriptions of those intangible social factors such as support, a sense of
mission, encouragement, optimism, and teamwork.
Those two words—
recognizing and behaviors— are the foundation of a Positivity Dominated
Workplace. Recognition matters because it reinforces the right actions,
encouraging them to happen again and again, providing guidance, and adding
social value. Behaviors matter because in a workplace, behavior trumps
intention. Behavior, not intentions or even ideas, makes profits and achieves
missions. The Positivity Dominated Workplace is first and last an active,
achievement-oriented institution.
Chapter 3: Appreciation, Gratitude, and Employee
Engagement
Summary: Management
studies and social science create a progressive framework for understanding why
giving and receiving appreciation is not only beneficial but vital to a
well-functioning organization. Many sources, from Maslow’s famous hierarchy of
psychological needs to McKinsey’s research about employee engagement, suggest a
model for moving culture forward.
Quotes:
Gratitude is a bit
more personal than appreciation— it means expressing thanks for a benefit one
has received.
The mediocre manager
likes to think that his or her employees should be grateful to have a
job.
Let’s look at the
aspects of appreciation that make it essential to culture management:
·
Thanks are
motivating.
·
Thanks are
humanizing.
·
Thanks are
specific.
·
Thanks are
empowering.
·
Thanks are
powerful.
Seventy-one percent of
Millennials reported meaningful work was among the three most important factors
defining career success, while 30 percent believed it was the most critical
factor.
Here are 14 beneficial
effects of gratitude on the health of individuals and their
workplaces:
1. Grateful people
achieve more
2. Grateful people are
better corporate citizens.
3. Grateful people are
less likely to burn out.
4. Grateful people pay
it forward.
5. Grateful people are
more morally alert.
6. Giving creates a
positive feedback loop.
7. Opportunity to give
increases commitment to a company.
8. Givers are more
engaged.
9. Gratefulness
increases emotional well-being.
10. Grateful people
get along better with others.
11. Grateful people
are more resilient to trauma.
12. Grateful people
sleep better.
13. Grateful people
are physically healthier.
14. Grateful people
are less depressed.
Engaged and productive
employees are by definition empowered to achieve results.
Part 2— Understanding Social Recognition
Social recognition is a set of practices to manage company
culture. Before planning a social recognition program, everyone involved needs
to understand how it works and where it is
going in the coming decade.
Chapter 4: Setting a Purpose and a Vision
Summary: Leadership
means telling the world why a company exists— its purpose— and describing a
vision for how that purpose will be achieved. Of course, this includes the
strategy and tactics for delivering products and services to market.
Critically, it also includes the way in which those results will be achieved—
the underlying acceptable behaviors and environment to deliver on the business
plan: in other words, the company’s culture. Strategically implemented
recognition moves people toward that vision, and it is achieved through a
social architecture that enables individuals to contribute to that progress
through their work.
Quotes:
Many CEOs hope the
senior team will extend culture by passing on what the boss says, or
translating the boss’s values into their individual styles as they manage their
departments. Soon, multiple executives are working within their own spheres of
influence, and the cultural norms and imperatives the CEO feels are important
become diluted further. Managers pursue different business drivers, different
imperatives, different problems and opportunities. Social hierarchies
complicate the picture: If the company has a go-go sales culture, then the
sales representatives are the royalty. If it’s a product culture, the product
managers are the princes and princesses of the realm. Different “tribes” tend
to believe their culture is best, whatever the CEO urges.
“We need a Chief
Culture Officer!” says the CEO, and the search is on to find someone who will
spread the word about recognition, and talk about the culture, and arrange
events and programs that promote the values.… Wait. There already is a Chief
Culture Officer, and it’s the person the CEO sees in the mirror. If culture is
that important— and it is— then the CEO has to promote it relentlessly.
Otherwise it’s a “nice to have.”
Social architecture is
to culture what a foundation, beams, and joists are to a building. Social
architecture is found in a thousand small behaviors: communication, traditions,
authority, privileges, and “ways of doing things.”
Three components of
social architecture deserve special mention here: shared values, employee
engagement, and united execution create a high-performance culture. Social
recognition is the link connecting all three.
Shared values, engaged employees, and united
execution can be a daily reality with a strong, supportive, and inclusive
social architecture. Strong social architecture, like the architecture of
houses or cathedrals, is born of long thought and careful planning and
deliberate work. And it requires specialized tools to come into
being.
Chapter 5: The Evolution and Reinvention of Recognition
Summary: This
chapter examines the breakthrough concepts that move recognition from a “nice
to have” benefit to an invaluable practice fully integrated with global
management systems. We’ll share a model of how recognition progresses from
individual moments of appreciation and thanks to an enterprise-wide and
socially empowered practice.
Quotes:
In purely
psychological terms, motivation is an emotional state, and incentive is the
stimulus that gives rise to that state.
“Organizations spend
far too much time and energy on compensation and not nearly enough on
recognition. People long to be a valued member of their organization and want
to feel that it is a meritorious place— the latter because it helps them feel
that it is worth being a valuable member of it. Both require recognition.
Workers need to know that they are valued and they will feel better if they are
working for a company that values its employees in a thorough and intelligent
fashion."
Chapter 6: Social, Mobile, and 24/ 7
Summary: Workforce
habits and employee behavior are changing faster today than at any time in the
past. The impact of online social behavior, mobile technology, and a cultural
shift toward 24/ 7 connectivity is changing interaction across geographies,
generations, and hierarchies. We’ll show how recognition fits in this new work
paradigm.
Quotes:
However the next
generation (“ Generation Z”) might differ in its tastes and attitudes, we
believe that the trend toward multigenerational workforces is a long-term
business reality. In fact, as baby boomers postpone retirement and businesses
find it profitable to retain the boomers’ experience with more flexible work
arrangements, it’s likely that by 2020 large organizations will find four distinct
cultural generations working together. Business leaders who create a culture
that unifies such disparate cohorts will harness an incredible range of
knowledge, wisdom, and talent.
Part 3— Putting Social Recognition into Practice
Acknowledging culture’s role in the workplace and social
recognition’s role in culture management, Part 3 is a blueprint for putting
recognition into practice following several essential principles. As part of
implementing social recognition, Part 3 also described the key business impacts
of recognition beyond managing culture.
Chapter 7: Building a Social Recognition Framework
Summary: This
chapter outlines a step-by-step plan for implementing social recognition in
your organization, with strategies and key practices that will improve your
culture and results.
Quotes:
Commitment without
alignment means wasted effort (and frustration). Alignment without commitment
means wasted potential employee turnover). Recognition singles out great
performance (commitment) that focuses on strategic goals (alignment).
A number of metrics
should be monitored to judge the effectiveness of your recognition program.
They include:
- · 80 to 90 + percent of employees touched by the program (as nominators or recipients)
- · More than 60 percent of employees are regular participants, nominating others or receiving recognition at least six times a year
- · A six-month survey shows 90 percent of managers participating
- · A one-year survey confirms that 90 percent of employees agree “the program helps motivate sustained high performance”
- · Program reaches all geographic and demographic groups of the organization
Lack of recognition
for a job well done is the second most common reason people quit (after
compensation).
Here’s why that
approach means lost opportunity: That particular group of people already wakes
up every morning very motivated to do their jobs. It’s important to recognize
high performers, but if you confine your recognition program to them, you
create a very small winner’s circle— one already inhabited by engaged,
motivated employees. Social recognition rewards that top 10 percent (and they
will still get the lion’s share of the high-value awards). It also recognizes
the 70 percent of people behind those top performers who carry the organization
every day. These are the classic unsung heroes. They are the “Mighty Middle”—
the people who dutifully attend to their tasks, are consistently polite on the
phone, and reliably complete work on time. A broad improvement in company
performance requires bringing these people into the winner’s circle.
Chapter 8: Driving ROI and Business Results
Summary: Any
recognition program worthy of the name should deliver measurable return on
investment. In addition to improving the bottom line, recognition advances key
HR goals such as employment branding, becoming a great place for people to
work, increasing employee engagement and energy, and boosting retention.
Quotes:
Turnover is a
budget-killer for HR because the cost of replacing employees who quit ranges
from 50 percent to 150 percent of a year’s salary. 4 For example, a company of
10,000 employees with annual salaries ranging between $ 30,000 and $ 150,000
and an 11 percent turnover rate spends more than $ 41 million in turnover costs! (See
Figure 8.1.) Compare that to the cost of a recognition program set at 1 percent
of payroll ($ 4 million). Even if a recognition program reduced turnover by
just 20 percent, it would more than pay for itself— and that doesn’t include
all the other benefits of recognition.
Data show that
employee satisfaction is positively correlated with shareholder returns.
Chapter 9: How Social Recognition Impacts HR
Summary: Social
recognition’s impact radiates outward to key executive concerns such as health
and wellness, safety initiatives, change management, performance reviews, and
predictive workforce analytics. We will show how to bolster each of these
practices using the benefits of recognition, from the concrete (workforce
analytics) to the ephemeral (employee goodwill).
This book represents the best thinking from the
best-performing organizations on culture, employee engagement, and the simple
human truths underlying successful management practices. We’ll share their
wisdom in the text and in special comments we call “Expert Insights,” along
with cautionary observations from companies that ignored these truths at great
cost. The best practices presented here can help you and your organization leverage the power of thanks to
create a culture of recognition that drives performance, profits, pride, and a
best place to work.
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