At DMIA's Spring Management Conference 2003, held April 9-12 in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., I noticed a fellow member contributing some great points during a committee meeting. Of course, the room was full of people offering insight, but I noted this particular contributor because recently had criticized DMIA's leadership. It meant a lot to me that a member who strongly opposed some decisions we made was participating in a positive, helpful manner. After the meeting, I thanked him for adding so much to the committee's discussions. I decided I would send him a note telling him how much it had meant to me.
You've probably heard the saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." If that's true, I've got a 5-lane superhighway under construction. I didn't write the note, and it's another chunk of tar on my "road."
We all have our reasons for not doing the good things we intend to do. I intended to send that note. I intended to treat my husband to dinner last week to thank him for always preparing delicious dinners for us. I intended to take an afternoon off to spend with my daughter. I intended to finish this column before the deadline (a week ago!). There never seems to be enough time.
One of the most foolish things many of us do is failing to thank the people who make our organizations strong. A common excuse I make is that I'm too busy putting out fires to pass out well-deserved credit. But how many fires could I avoid if everyone in our organization felt appreciated and energized?
A group of managers at our distributorship, Independent Business Group (IBG), came up with a good system to help everyone at our company recognize the efforts of fellow employees. Each person received a book of Thank You Tokens. When someone notices a co-worker giving extra effort, he or she can fill out a token describing the "above and beyond" action and drop it in our Thank You Box. We tally and distribute tokens weekly, and employees can redeem them for various rewards. These include $5 gift certificates to Starbucks (three tokens), half-hour professional massages (25 tokens) and weekend getaways (100 tokens).
To make this program meaningful, it's critical to make sure recognized actions warrant tokens. We don't thank each other for making it through another day in a semi-conscious state. Tokens are given for real contributions.
In our monthly employee newsletter, we publish the total number of tokens received by each employee, and the total number of tokens given by each employee. A former employee complained once that he never had received a token. I asked him how many he had given, and the answer was (of course) zero. There's real satisfaction in "catching" someone going the extra mile. That feeling is every bit as valuable as receiving a token. This program teaches all of us to notice and appreciate the extra efforts of our colleagues, and we all learn from what we see.
Gail O'Roke, CDC, is CEO of distributorship Independent Business Group, based in Hayward, Calif., and president of DMIA.
