Appreciation@work: Impact Accelerator #2 - Recognition, Reloaded: Keep it human, make it measurable, scale it with AI

We have our final Impact Accelerator section of this program. Again, as all of you experienced earlier, these are tactical sessions where we break down frameworks, strategies, best practices, things that you can use to kind of continue to build the framework and, and the culture internally. So, each one of these groups are gonna provide, you know, 15, minutes of, of content and ideas and strategies and case studies on how you do that. So, I encourage you, get the notebook out. Let's keep kind of thinking critically of how these things work within our own team and organization, and I hope you kind of process what they're sharing and how you could bring it to life within your own organization. So, first up, and big shout-out to this group, too, Bucket List Rewards. Talk about recognizing. I don't know if some of you saw this earlier, I've worked with them for a little bit now. They sent me this mug as a partner, and I think, like, (laughs) it, it seems silly, but they, they sent this with a note about how awesome of a partnership it's been and how it's great to work together. I had no idea. I don't even know how they got (laughs) my address, to be honest. No, I'm just kidding. I, I gave it to them. But they sent me this, and I remember thinking, like, "Wow. I'll ... What do you want? You want to come onto this program? I'll bring you on." Like, I just feeling that appreciation and connection made this, like, energy behind the partnership even further. I was like, "Okay, let's, let's continue working together. Let's do more," you know? And I think about, okay, if that's a tiny experience I'm having, how can you replicate that internally even further? So, shout-out to Bucket List Rewards, our partner, for really doing this with us. And let's give a warm welcome to two of their amazing leaders internally. Jessica, who is a manager on customer onboarding side of things, so working with tons of organizations who are standing up these things in-house. And Rodrigo, who is also on the customer success side with Bucket List Rewards. Um, so, uh, we're very lucky because they're in the field doing this work with so many different groups that we get to learn from. So, all of you, let's give them a warm welcome in the chat and the emojis as they take the virtual stage. So, Rodrigo and Jessica, welcome. Thank you for being here. Let me pull you up. Uh, it's so great to see your faces, and, uh, I'll pass it over to the both of you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Rodrigo, I'll give you a, a second here to pull up the, the slide deck for everybody, but, uh- Yes. ... welcome everyone. It's really great to have you all here. As Zach mentioned, I am Jessica. I'm the manager of, uh, customer onboarding here at Bucket List Rewards. And I have my lovely colleague here, Rodrigo, who manages our customer success team. So, we are all things recognition and rewards over here, and we're really excited to, uh, talk to you today about how to design a recognition program that's not just a nice-to-have, but it truly drives people and performance. So, we're going to explore what makes recognition programs effective and how you can align them with your business goals. So, very briefly, we have our agenda here. So, we're gonna cover why recognition matters more than ever. I know you've been talking about this all day, so this will be a little bit of a, a high-level overview. And then we're gonna discuss how to align that strategically with your business, how to design experiences employees actually love, and how to keep your program alive long-term. So, why does recognition matter now more than ever? So, recognition is not just a feel-good thing. It is actually very strategic for companies. So, internally here at Bucket List, we have our own I-O psychologist who has done a lot of research on recognition. So, we do see a couple of different stats here on the screen. I'm not gonna go over these, as you have been talking about this all day, but it's really important to understand that recognition isn't just a feel-good gesture. It really is a strategic lever. It impacts engagement, it impacts retention and performance. And organizations that have strong recognition cultures see measurable business results internally. So, it's not just a nice-to-have, it really is a necessity for businesses. Now that you have a program up and running, it, which is amazing, eh, one thing that we wanted to talk about, though, is why recognition programs fail. These are some of the re- main reasons that we see recognition programs fail. I do want to focus on one in particular, 'cause I think this has been a recurring theme in this webinar. It's misaligned goals. Most recognition programs will fail because they're launched as a project, as an HR project, sometimes as a marketing project, not strategic initiatives. They sound really good at kickoff, but it doesn't have a clear tie to a business objective, the company's business objectives. So, they lose traction after launch, three, six months, uh, after that. So, when recognition isn't connected to your company goals or starts feeling like a checkbox exercise of things that you're starting to do, people will start to tune out. And that's not good. But the good news is, every one of these pitfalls is fixable. Every single one of these. With intention, with alignment, and thoughtful design on your program, recognition can become one of your strongest performant tools. And on this misaligned goals, I wanted to touch, uh, on the actual how we can purpose, ha- have purpose-driven recognition. When we talk about recognition, it's not just about making people feel good. It's about aligning with your business strategy, as I was mentioning before. Recognition should be pur- purposeful and measurable, not just performative. And the framework that, eh, think of this as a roadmap that you could take away from this. It's, it's first off, you start with a strategy. Yeah. You go to the behaviors, then recognitions, and find the impact from that. So, if you start with a clear business goal-... you define the key behaviors that drive that goal, you recognize those behaviors in real time, and that would be... The ultimate result of that would be the measurable impact. So, for example, if your strategy is to increase pipeline generation within your company, you can recognize your SDRs, business development representatives, for lead quality or demo bookings. So, that recognition will directly fuel more of the behavior you want for your strategy. So, the key takeaway here is when recognition supports a strategy, it will become a business driver. It will not just be a culture initiative. Passing on to you, Jess, now. So, to continue with what Rodrigo is saying here about tying your recognition to your business goals, the other thing that we really want to focus on here is that it's really not a one-size-fits-all. So, you will have business goals that might be more tailored to one department or one section of your employee group, and you might have goals for other folks as well. So, you can think about different business goals and loop them all into your program as an overarching idea, or having different goals for different sections. So, really just wanted to give you some ideas here as you're thinking about what you could focus on. So, the first one is if sales is the focus, so we want to really encourage different behaviors from the sales team. You can recognize behaviors that directly impact the revenue. So, for example, maybe the, the overarching goal is to bring in more revenue, which is generally the sales focus. If that's the overarching goal, the recognition behaviors that you could be looking for are upselling, closing deals, teamwork in achieving targets, and then you can even run fun contests or theme awards, like cookies are for closers, to make it more memorable and motivating. So now what we've done there is we have the goal and we've tied the recognition behavior to that goal. Couple other examples here, uh, you know, if customer experience is your focus, you could tie recognition to customer feedback directly. For example, reviews, satisfaction scores, public praise. When customers name employees, you can go ahead and celebrate those types of things. The last one as an example here is if operation and automation is your focus, then you may want to automate key milestones like service anniversaries and onboarding checkpoints. This ensures that no one is missed and it creates consistent moments of appreciation. This is really key for a lot of businesses, but if you're thinking about maybe like a healthcare business, for example, where everybody is super busy all the time, having automation is really going to help alleviate some of that administrative work, and then, like I said, ensure that nobody is missed. Gonna pass it back to Rodrigo to talk a little bit now about walking in your employees' shoes. Thanks, Jess. So, too often, recognition is designed to follow a policy, a budget, or a system, or a project, but employees will experience recognition differently depending on their role, their environment, and their personal realities. So, what matters to a nurse in a night shift will be completely different from what matters to a software engineer or a restaurant that are server. So, when we walk in our employees' shoes and we design recognition that's human-centered, practical, and meaningful, that's where the recognition shifts from being just another HR program to creating moments that truly resonate within your company. And I have some examples for everyone here. So, eh, in healthcare, recognition is about resilience and life-saving impact. Here, you could see an, uh, actual example from one of our customers. A nurse was recognized by a doctor for staying calm during a crisis, and the patient's survival was tied directly to their actions. That's a very powerful moment right there, and it shows how recognition can literally be life-affirming in this industry. In hospitality, another example for you here is recognition centers on the guest experience. You go to the hotel, it's the guest, center of attention right there. This employee's attention to detail and friendliness didn't just serve a meal. It earned the business a five-star review in TripAdvisor. And so, here, the recognition highlights how individual actions directly shaped the brand reputation and the customer loyalty for this hotel. And then for retail and sales, recognition connects to performance and frontline teamwork. Here, you could see a team hit their weekly sales target, but also an individual exceeded their personal goals. So, recognition like this will drive that motivation and shows how every achievement will contribute to the business success. And that's one of the, the, the beauties of my job, personally, is I get... I have a chance to work with amazing customers across so many industries, geographies, cultures, languages, and what makes it so fun is seeing how recognition looks completely different in each context and learning so much from those differences. I'll pass it back to you, Jess. Awesome. Those are great examples, Rod. I always think about the, uh, the one example I know we've shared in other, other webinars about the person who, through their recognitions, gathered enough monetary points and they were able to pay off their student loans using that. So, that really shows you the direct link between being recognized and how that can impact somebody's life outside of that. So, really just thinking about those, those big moments for folks, like, that's huge to have your, your debt paid off. That's amazing. So, recognition is so much more impactful than, uh, necessarily just that individual piece of information that's provided to the user. It can go so much further than that.Okay. So, how to keep your program alive? (sighs) So, of course, you have your recognition program. Perhaps you're using a, a software, like Bucketlist, or you're using something else, or you're just running it all in-house. The one thing we don't wanna do is set it and forget it. We can't just walk away from it. It really needs rhythm and intention to stick. (smacks lips) So, we have four simple ways that you can take to keep your program alive and engaging. (smacks lips) So, the first one is planning around those key moments, things like work anniversaries, company milestones, cultural events. These give you built-in reasons to celebrate and make, make recognition feel timely. We see this all the time in the, uh, hospital sector where... Nurses Week, for example. So, you can bring in different, uh, different, um, things like that into your program if it's related to your company as well. (smacks lips) The next thing to look at here is to run regular campaigns. So, you can, uh, have like a teamwork month, an innovation challenge, a customer appreciation week. This is really a great way to keep things fun and fresh, and encourage folks to engage back with the recognition piece. The other part is tracking your progress so you know what's working and what might need to be adjusted, looking at the participation of folks, the recogni- recognition frequency, and sharing those with leadership to have those discussions. (smacks lips) And then after you do that, you may want to refresh your program every so often. So, that can be things like updating rewards, tweaking the look of your program, adding new awards, and, um, also taking into account feedback loops. So, the most successful programs that we see here at Bucketlist are the ones that involve the actual employees that are using it. So, don't be afraid to get feedback from your employees and utilize that to refresh your program. (smacks lips) So, ultimately here, recognition is a living part of your culture and when you nurture it regularly, that's when it really gets to thrive. But now we're gonna take a little bit of a turn here, and Rodrigo is going to talk more about AI with recognition. And on our next slide, we wanted to have a little bit of fun, so this is the image that we came up with. But, um, w- you remember when the internet first came out, a lot of people thought, eh, it would eliminate jobs? But instead, it created entirely new industries and amplified the human potential. (smacks lips) So, we truly believe the same thing is happening with AI. It's not here to replace people. It's here to actually empower those who learn how to use it. People who adapt, who stay curious are the ones who will actually lead the way with AI. And I'll give you a quick personal example. English isn't actually my first language. It's Spanish. I'm originally from El Salvador, Central America. So, i- in, in our internal platform, I've always written my own recognition messages, and I still do, but I tend to overexplain things. That's just a cultural thing. We tend to overexplain things. But using AI, it has actually helped me with simplifying those messages and to express gratitude way more clearly and efficiently. So, for me personally, AI isn't replacing what I actually do in this theme of recognition. It's actually helping me do it better and with more impact with my team. (smacks lips) And on the same topic, eh, I wanted to share a quick example of how internally in Bucketlist we've adopted AI, eh, to deliver real ROI to our customers. We built an AI-powered recognition theme analyst that processes hundreds of thousands of recognition messages from our customers. And instead of just counting how many recognitions people give out, it uncovers why those recognitions happen and the behaviors that they're reinforcing, so the actual cultural, eh, values they reflect and the impact that they drive with these businesses. (smacks lips) That's what we call is qualitative ROI. It's the non-financial value of recognition that traditional metrics cannot really capture. So, it helps leaders truly understand not just that recognition works, but why is it working with the, the industry itself? And here's an actual example, eh, directly from one of our customers, eh, using the recognitions being analyzed on how this, it uncovered for one of our healthcare clients. It found that employees were being recognized for behaviors that directly improved patient care, streamlined operations, and enhanced the overall patient experience. And what's really powerful here is that rec- these recognitions weren't just generic "Good job," "Amazing job" messages. They were specific moments tied to real impact, to a patient, to a human life, right? So, every message reflected the compassion, the teamwork, and the excellence. And these are the exact qualities that define outstanding care in healthcare in, in any, uh, healthcare company in the world. So, this is why, where recognition becomes more than just appreciation. It actually becomes evidence of culture in action, and that's where you can actually tie in AI i- into outperforming and boosting this sort of... eh, get, creating that sort of visibility. Awesome, and I'll pass it on to you, Jess, to wrap up. Amazing. The one thing I was gonna say before we jumped over here was, uh, in regards to AI but just in the general direction of the workforce, we are finding that especially the gen Z generation, that's the, the youngest generation in the workforce, they're really gung-ho on culture, and it's a very key thing that they're looking for. They're also gonna be the generation that's probably gonna be the savviest with AI as well. So, really thinking about, um, you know, when you're advertising (smacks lips) for new workers in, in your company, putting even in your job description that you have some type of recognition program, that's really gonna help you attract that new talent to your company.Now, lastly here... Okay, so, uh, we don't have time to actually do this whole activity today, but we are gonna send this worksheet out later to everybody, uh, that signed up today. But as a start, uh, Rod and I, we really love to do giveaways, so we are going to do a giveaway to two people. It is going to be a random draw that will be done offline, but the giveaway is gonna be for some Bucket List swag. You heard Zach talk about the swag before. Uh, we love our Bucket List swag, it's amazing, so I think you'll enjoy it as well. But in order to determine who those two people are, the activity, as we can see here, is to design your first recognition intervention. So, in the chat, we just wanna hear from you, what is one business goal that you are looking to support with your recognition program? So, would love to pop that in the chat there to get you started on this activity, one business goal that you want to support with your recognition program. Now, as people are writing this in, I'm gonna give an example from our lovely, uh, Bekah here at Bucket List. She has an avocado example. So, she worked in a business f- before where the business goal was to increase sales. The behavior that the business wanted to support was, of course, upselling. And then a recognition moment that they launched next... in a- in the next month was an award for people who upsold the most avocados. This was obviously in a restaurant. So, we can see the tie between the business goal being increasing sales, the behavior is to encourage more upsells, and then a fun award for those who sold more avocados. So, I'll give everybody... I see a whole bunch of stuff coming in, pop it in the chat. We'll get a list of all of this later on, and then we will randomly select, probably using some type of AI tool, uh, who those two winners will be, and then you will hear from Bekah from the Bucket List team to select your swag item. A lot of really good business goals, and very specific. I love those. Amazing. Well, people feel free to keep popping it in the chat if you're still typing away. I know it can be a couple of seconds there, but just want to cap off by saying thank you so much everyone for coming to hear Rodrigo and I talk today. Really encourage everybody to take the worksheet that we will send out later to run through, uh, designing recognition moments for your business goals. And then, of course, if you ever do have any questions or need any assistance, Bucket List is always here to help support, uh... But I will pass it back over to Zach for the rest of your day. So, thank you, everybody. Awesome. Thank you so much. Give it up for this group. Incredible session. And I was hoping to ask just a follow-up question if you, if you could hang on for one more minute, uh, especially since both of you are so close to, like, the onboarding and supporting of customers and people who are kicking off these new initiatives in, uh, often case, or maybe they're leveling up from some of the- the things that they're just doing in house. Um, I'm just curious, for those of... that are thinking like, "Hey, we're gonna kick off some things, maybe we're even looking at Bucket List rewards to kind of support us," but we want to be aware of, like, what are the barriers or roadblocks that tend to come up once someone starts going that often prevents them from maybe realizing the full potential or slows down the implementation or maybe diverts it completely altogether? I'm just curious, from your experience, like, what are some of the common things that might cause it to go stale or hit a ho- hit a roadblock that some of our leaders should be aware of so they could plan ahead and kind of avoid these things? Just anything come to mind for both of you? Yeah. Uh, I'll let Rodrigo jump in after, but I would say, especially in the beginning when you're starting it, uh, the biggest thing that I see companies do is overcomplicating their program. They want to start with everything they can possibly think of, and then it becomes overwhelming. You know, there's a little bit of change management if you haven't had a recognition program before, so folks do need to get used to it as well. So, typically, I would recommend people to start a little more basic, right? Bring in a program with a couple of awards, a couple of rewards, maybe one or two business goals that you're looking to achieve with the program, and start there, and then get the feedback from your employees and start to integrate that feedback into changes over time. But you don't need to do the whole kit and caboodle right off the bat. Yeah. Rodrigo, what are your thoughts? Jess, we are so aligned. I was exactly gonna say that. But sec- Eh, and I see things when the platform's already launched, the... everything's going, the program's running beautifully, and it's crazy 'cause in implementation or even the sales cycle, there's goals that needs to be achieved, you know. They start thinking... You- you get into the weeds of the actual program itself, but the best advice that I could give is, start simple, like Jess mentioned, focus on one business goal. And I can give you a very specific example. We have a distribution center for a very large, uh, uh, grocery store in the US. It's around 10,employees. The only main pain point- pain point they focused on is they needed to automate their anniversary awards and birthday awards, because they're so big that it was impossible for the HR team to actually tackle that. It's humanly impossible. So, that was the main focus when they launched the program. They focused on that, implementation was very straightforward, very smooth, very strong adoption, and then, after six months, a year, it's where we started analyzing the program itself and starting to introduce things like safety awards, because they wanted to focus on improving safety within the distribution center. So, if you do that, I think you're- you're- you're destined for success in a program. So, don't overcomplicate things, start basic, focus on your goal, and make sure it's tied to your company and what the vision is as well. So- Well, everyone you heard it, like hopefully that's like a relief to some of you where you're like, "Oh my gosh, there's this huge, like vision of what our recognition strategy could look like. That seems like such a overtaking and how am I gonna imagine, how we're gonna create it." Like actually you don't have to. You don't have to get there right away. You can actually just pick one core focus area and just do that right. Do that really well and then you continue to compound and build on it. So, uh, you got permission now everyone who's listening, like start simple, start small, build momentum and I think that's, that's so incredibly important. So Jessica, Rodrigo, thank you so much. That was a awesome session. Uh, for everyone listening again, I'll re-share in the chat. You can connect and follow them on LinkedIn. You can also connect and follow Bucket List Rewards on LinkedIn as well as their website and some of the resources that they provide for free. Uh, amazing group and, uh, for those that engaged in the chat, you might have an awesome mug like me pretty soon. So thank you so much to the both of you. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone. All right, everyone, how about that? I mean, I appreciate the activity there and these goals are so important. Keep these goals top of mind and front and center as you leave today's program and you think about, "Okay, what i- why am I doing this?" Like what's at the forefront? Employee engagement, building relationships, improving our core values, uh, the patient experience. I love that goal, Lily. Um, increase employee engagement. Theresa, sales behavior, solution-based selling. Ah, that's how specific you are is great. Keep that up because I think you're gonna need these goals kind of connected there to kind of keep pushing you and keeping that kind of as the compass as you build these things. And then as they just shared, like what's one simple way you can start taking action? You don't need to build out this whole comprehensive system on the front end. Just one kind of lever of change that you can align with that goal and start building momentum. I think that's so important for all of this. So let's keep it rolling. I'm excited for this next session. Uh, welcome back to a longtime friend and, and colleague, and past speaker, advisor. Uh, she's recently started, well, kind of recent, I don't know if I consider it recent anymore, but now director of employee experience at City Block and just in a short amount of time has stood up some amazing work and frameworks. And if there's, you're like, a lot of, you are starting from ground zero or like in the early stage, like this is a great case example of how you could start to make pe- people feel seen with really any budget, right? Like, and, and kind of build that from the start. So Bridget, thank you so much for being here with us. Let me pull you up. It's so great to see your face- (laughs) ... with us again. Um, just feel really appreciative that you're here with us. So I'll pass it over to you and the stage is all yours. Um, thanks, Zach. And actually I'm sharing my slides now. Um, yesterday was my one-year anniversary. Yes. So it's officially, yeah, officially one year, um, at City Block. So really appreciate, um, the introduction. Can y'all see my slides okay? Are we seeing them? Yep. I feel like it's not... Oh wait, I got it now. There we go. We see it. You see it? Perfect. Awesome. All right. Well, Zach, thank you so much for that introduction. Super excited to be here. Again, my name is Bridget McCullough and I am our director of employee experience at City Block. And, uh, to get started, I wanted to share a little bit about our organization. I think it's an important piece of our recognition story and also because having a true understanding of your organization's culture and your people is really crucial for any recognition initiatives to be most effective. So City Block is an organization focused on improving health outcomes for people and communities that have often been overlooked by the traditional healthcare system. So our model brings together medical care as well as behavioral health, uh, social support, things like access to food and housing and transportation. Really meeting people where they are, whether that's at home, in the community, or virtually. And many of our employees also come from the very neighborhoods that we serve. And that shared experience is part of what makes our approach really powerful because it allows us to build trust and connection with our members. And here you can see our mission. And as you can imagine, the work that our teams is doing is deeply human. It's emotionally taxing, it requires an incredible amount of empathy. And because we're still a fast-moving startup, constantly adapting and evolving, the emotional load can be really heavy. So recognition is critical to our success. It's how we sustain people doing hard, meaningful work and remind them that we do see them, all of them, not just the work that they're doing for us, that we value them and that we care about them just as we care about our members. And so we've taken a lot of steps this year, as I was saying. We've done a lot in a short amount of time to really build out what recognition looks like for our company. And not only has it been really great for our people, it's also been great for our business too. And well done recognitions efforts typically are, and you've seen a lot of data today and you can see more here on the screen, um, when you're prioritizing recognition, it leads to positive improvements in retention and productivity and recruitment. And when we crunched our own numbers in these areas for our organization, we compared it to what we were spending. And I will tell you, we're a startup, we don't have a huge budget for this. Uh, we're seeing annual savings of around 1.million attributed directly to our recognition efforts and the improvements that we are seeing from increased productivity and reduced replacement costs from people staying with us. Our tenure has actually increased from just over one year...... one-year tenure in to nearly three years this year. So people are staying much longer. It's really incredible what we're seeing. So today, I want to share a couple of tips that you can apply to hopefully see a similar return for your organization that, again, as Zach said, can all be done regardless of what your budget is. So to do this, I wanna start with the definition of employee recognition. And I just did a quick Google search, that's what most people do when they need a definition, and this is what showed up. So acknowledging and appreciating an employee's contributions, efforts, and achievements at work, which, you know, sounds about right. But over the next minutes, I'm gonna call out a couple of flaws in this definition, starting with the two words that are highlighted in yellow, acknowledging and appreciating. So we know that to build a culture of recognition, it can't just come from HR or come from senior leaders. It's something that we all need to be doing. And just because you're asking or even incentivizing employees to show appreciation or to submit nominations for awards or even providing them a really fancy platform to do it, it doesn't mean that they're going to understand how to do it in a way that is meaningful for the employee. And so my first tip for you is to train employees on what meaningful recognition looks like, and start with day one. So research shows us that meaningful recognition has three components. It shows someone that they matter, it demonstrates impact on you, your customers, other team members, or the success of the organization, and it's future-focused versus focusing solely on the past. So to get our employees thinking about this, and again, practicing it from day one, we built an activity right into our orientation where we show them two example messages of recognition so that they could actually feel the difference. And the first one is this, this is what we typically see with recognition. So, "Thank you so much for completing that project while I was on vacation. You did such a great job and even got it done ahead of the deadline." This is a pretty typical recognition message, and it's nice and it's fine. But does it show someone that they matter? Does it say anything about the impact that the person had? And it's focused completely on the past versus anything about the future. Then we show them this example. "Thank you so much for covering for me while I was out. Because of you, our members continued to get the care and attention they needed without disruption. You also gave me the space to be fully present with my family, allowing me to return rested with the energy to reengage in my work. I feel lucky to work alongside you. You remind me what healthy balance can look like, and you make me a stronger colleague, parent, and partner because of it." Does that feel a little bit different? Some of our new hires are almost, like, uncomfortable or taken aback when we show them these two, two messages, and that's because we're not used to hearing it. But it makes a really big difference. So after we do this activity, we then invite employees to write and send a message to someone they've interacted with in their first few days, whether it was the recruiter or someone they interviewed with, or IT, or someone from their team. And this gets them thinking about recognition differently and taking part in it as a norm right from the very first day. And this was talked about a lot in that last session, which is awesome. So we know that not everyone likes to receive recognition the same way, right? One person might love public praise, I'm one of those people, give me that public shoutout, but other people absolutely hate it. But they would love to be given a growth opportunity or some quality time with their leader or their skip level. And if we don't know how someone likes to receive recognition, too often, we do what we like, which if those two things are not aligned, you can actually have the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve, which is to make someone feel valued. So something else that we do right from the very beginning, day one, is we have employees complete a document that we call Working With Me during orientation. They answer all kinds of questions about how they like to receive feedback, how they learn best, what their pet peeves are, and of course, how they prefer to receive recognition. And we then invite them to share this with their leader, their teams, or even add it to their Slack profile. And many people do. And then have the conversations right from the beginning so that we can make sure that we're getting it right, right from the start. So many of our new hires say that this document is actually kinda difficult to complete because no one's ever asked them this stuff before. It's overwhelming. All right. So I wanna go back to that definition and look at the next part that's highlighted in yellow, contributions, efforts, and achievements. So while this is typically what we acknowledge with recognition, we've also started thinking about this a little bit differently, which brings me to my next tip. So, recognizing needs as much as achievements. And I feel like our keynote this morning kind of touched on this. So when we think of recognition, it usually focuses on the accolades. So if you look at the definition of accolades, it's almost identical to the words that I just showed you, uh, that were highlighted in yellow. But for recognition to be most effective, we also need to think about aligning it to someone's personal interests, their values, and their motivations. For instance, if you keep telling someone great job for a part of their role that's actually their least favorite, but not the part of their job that maybe they're trying to stretch into, and therefore, they're making a few more mistakes, that could leave the person feeling disengaged and unmotivated. That's the inspiration component. And the second part here, which I'll be honest, it kind of blew me away when I first heard it and had me thinking about recognition in a completely different way, was seeing empathy as a form of recognition. So recognizing when someone needs support.... needs a break, is having a tough time. Because you can have all the high fives, and great jobs, and awards coming your way in the world, but if no one is noticing that you're actually feeling quite lonely, or that you've been pushing harder than you should, or that your job is harder than you expected and you could use some support, or that something going on outside of your job is getting in the way of you doing your best work, that's actually recognition too, right? And it's pretty aligned with the work that we do at City Block with our members. Before we ever talked to them about improving their health, we're sitting alongside them to understand their needs and their experiences. And there's a reason that "empathy is our superpower" is written on the walls in our hubs at City Block. It's not just how we support our members, it's also imperative that it's also how we support each other. And so something else that we've done is we launched an internal podcast this year called Radically Human, where our guests are employees talking about how they've navigated challenges or successes that they've had around topics that we all experience at work, things like navigating change, or trying to make connections with people outside your team, or preparing for and returning from leave. And the reason I like internal podcasts so much is because it's a very creative and fun way to train your people. They can be audio only, so they're easy to make. People can listen while they're doing other things like walking, and traveling, or cooking. And it's also one less screen to look at, which we all need. And they're on demand, so people can listen at their convenience. And so we of course created an episode on recognition, and in that episode, our two guests open up about the moments of appreciation that have mattered most to them, how they've learned to recognize others in ways that feel authentic, and why empathy is just as important as applause. So employees get to learn about the importance of this directly from their peers. And we also have a series we launched this year that we call Building the Block. We have cute names for everything. (laughs) And these are optional sessions that, uh, folks can come to around similar topics that we discuss in the podcast, but they get to engage with their peers in real time. And so in these sessions, folks are opening up about topics like belonging, and loneliness, and receiving feedback, and working through change. And we average about people at each session, and we have less than 1, employees, so it's a pretty good number, um, because these are optional. People just join if they want to. But we get so much positive feedback. People are feeling seen in these. They're connecting with other employees who have faced similar challenges and they're feeling less alone, making sure people feel recognized for the hard parts of work and life, and finding support from each other. Okay. So let's go back to that definition one more time and look at the last two words highlighted in yellow, "at work." All right. Yes, we're talking about work, right? But research from Workhuman actually shows that when personal milestones are recognized in addition to work performance, engagement goes up even farther and turnover drops even more significantly than just acknowledging work achievements alone. So for tip number three, celebrate the whole human. So for our peer-to-peer recognition platform, and we do have one, we could attach dollar rewards to each message that people send to incentivize use. But we wanted to try something a little bit more budget-friendly before we went that route. So instead, we used campaigns, and I think this was me- mentioned in the last session too. Our most recent campaign was called Beyond the Block. So we invited employees to recognize each other's milestones, their pursuits, and their achievements outside of work. And it was so much fun, y'all. We, we saw kudos for new babies and degrees, for parenting wins, for getting more movement every day or improving sleep. And while we used our peer-to-peer recognition platform for this, you can do campaigns like this even cheaper. You can do it with Slack or T- or Slack or Teams channel. You could, if you're in person, you could do it with cards or Post-it Notes. Don't need the platform. We used it, but you definitely don't need one to make this happen. So tip number four is use campaigns and collective rewards. So our most successful campaign this year was called Light Up the Block, and it had two key components that made it work so well. So we invited folks to pass it on. When you receive a shout-out, send one to someone else. Kind of like a chain letter, but way less annoying, right? And then the second part was that we used a collective reward. So if you're really low on dollars, I will say, raffles work great. Track who participated, pick a few names to win an incentive. And that could be something cheap or free. It could be a few gift cards, or lunch with a senior leader, or anything like that. But instead of making it a competition, we wanted to get our people working together for a collective reward, meaning if we reached a certain level of participation and we chose 50% of people engaging with this particular campaign, everyone in the company got the reward, which was limited edition swag. So this was so successful that our engagement with the platform that we use is actually higher than the benchmark for those companies that attach dollars to each message sent, and costs us a whole lot less. All right, one more tip before I wrap up here, and that's recognizing the how in addition to the what. So talked about a lot today incorporating your values, or even better, key behaviors that you want to see in your culture into recognition initiatives is so important. So with peer-to-peer recognition, our employees have to select behaviors aligned to at least one of our five values, you can see them here, that prompted the message. And our values are also built into our performance reviews and compensation increases, where we're not just focusing on the outcomes that people are achieving, but also how they got there, making sure that that aligns with what we want to see from our folks.And the same goes for our nominated awards, which is something else that we started this year. So we have two awards that leaders can nominate folks for, who really go above and beyond each quarter. And so our RAD award stands for Radical Achievements Delivered, which is focused on achieving outcomes for the organization. But our Black Star award is focused on living our values. When we connect recognition to behaviors, not just results, we are reinforcing the culture that we want to grow and showing that the way we work matters as much as the outcomes that we achieve. And so we provide a mix of rewards for earning these. So we give a small number of dollars through our recognition platform. We do a personalized note from our CEO. We do a shout-out at our all-hands meeting for those who really like the shout-out. We do a badge that they can add to their email signature. We do a, uh, they get an invitation and priority access to join one of our leader development programs if that's something that interests them, and we have those for every level of leader, including emerging leaders. And we also give them a template to post on LinkedIn for the employee to share or even for their leader to share and acknowledge that achievement. And most of that doesn't cost us anything. (laughs) Um, even the, the dollar amount that we give them, it's, it's not that much. So, um, it... The thing I like most about it is that we're acknowledging those different languages of appreciation, right? Like, we're making sure that we're hitting on multiple things versus just one thing. Okay. So that is the five ways that I wanted to share with you today to make people feel seen on any budget. So teaching meaningful recognition and starting early. Day one, folks. Recognize needs as much as achievements. Celebrate the whole human. Use campaigns and collective rewards, and recognize the how in addition to the what. And with that, I will turn it over to Zach for any questions or anything else you wanna share. All right. I mean, one year, Bridget, that's incredible. (laughs) I know. (laughs) That is amazing. Yes. For everyone who's listening, give it up for Bridget, 'cause I mean, talk about building such a movement and so many things to kind of bring these things to life, and to be curious. I saw some things in the chat already for some of you, like, where's the gap? What's some of the things that you want to bring in? I saw, you know, empathy piece is missing for some of you. The going beyond piece, I love that, right? Like, how can we recognize people for things beyond just the work and- Yeah. ... things that are happening in their lives that we can celebrate and recognize? And I think that really makes this more human. Um, the internal podcast is awesome. Uh, I know y- we've talked about that in the past, so it's good- Yeah. ... to see that come to life, and what a great way where it's like if someone's doing something really well or innovative or something that you wanna shine a light on, like, how cool is it to invite an employee to be on your podcast? They love it. Like, that sounds awesome. People love it. (laughs) They get really excited for that invitation. Uh, since many of us aren't podcasters (laughs) , right, and that kinda seems like a big lift for, for a lot of us, and maybe it is. But I'm just curious, like, what's some tips on how, if someone wants to start their own employee recognition, employee storytelling podcasts, what's some of the first things, like, you can do to kinda start bringing that to life? Yeah. No, I, I will level set, I have an undergrad degree in radio, so I, I know how to edit. I, there's a lot of, uh, pieces about this that I, that I do just happen to know how to do, but I don't feel like it's that hard. So we just record. We're all remote, so we record in Zoom. You can extract just the audio. I take it into a platform called Audacity, and I edit it to make it sound good. And then we actually... So, um, we use a weird... Uh, we use Vimeo, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend, but that's just the way that we've been doing it. We put a static image on it, and then we actually link it into Slack, which is really nice because then folks can, if they have the Slack app on their phone, which most people do, they can listen to them on their mobile device, which I think is really important that we make it super accessible. If you're just locking down within your internet and you have to be sitting at your desktop, it's not gonna work as well, so we had to find kind of a funny way to make it work. I have other ideas about how you can make that happen. You can pay for fancy platforms, but we wanted to use what we already had, which just happened to be Vimeo and Slack, and we made it work. So it's not really that complicated these days. I'm actually impressed with the sound quality when you record in Zoom. It takes all the background noise out. I started doing these during the pandemic, and I will tell you, it, it did not work nearly as well (laughs) - (laughs) . ... as it does now. So it's, it's not that bad. And really, I, I think people just... They love the opportunity to talk about their own experience, and it's a way for people to connect with others that they don't know. If you think about when you listen to a podcast, when people are telling their story, you almost feel like you know them. Like, I'm a big Adam Grant fan. I feel like we're friends. I've never met him- (laughs) . ... before, but I feel like we're buddies. You know, just listening to their voice (laughs) , there's something about it. So I think it really helps people to, to connect with others within the organization. I think it's such a cool strategy. Like, it hits on so many buckets (laughs) ... within... It, it helps from personal development and coaching- Yeah. ... and training people on- Yeah. ... how to do certain things or best practices to recognition tool, to celebrate and recognize- Yeah. ... and give people a spotlight and a voice. Uh, I mean, it's a connection thing where you build- Yeah. ... deeper relationships if, like you just shared, you feel like you're connected to the guest, to like, just by listening. That's right, even if you've never met them before. Yeah. It's real- it's really great. It's been very good for us. We, we actually have seven episodes now, which I'm excited about because we just started it this year, and we're doing them monthly. Um, but yeah, excited to keep that going. And honestly, you know, we all... Uh, people are kind of sick of getting trained (laughs) on things. So if it's a topic like recognition where you don't wanna do a training on what meaningful recognition looks like, but if you can just sit and listen to people talk about it, it actually is kind of fun and feels good. And people can do it on their own time, multitasking, you know, while they're out taking a walk or while they're maybe commuting to work if you go into office. So there's, there's, um, really a lot of benefits to that. Yeah.And it is still the number one way people consume information, is through podcasts. It is. Mm-hmm. So, um, and for L&D people in the world, like, how often are you trying to put together an entire training program for something that the company is rolling out? It's exhausting. That, like ... Those are real big lifts. Like, this might be, just, an easier avenue to kind of quickly capture something that you're trying to bring about awareness on and deliver it in a way that is the number one way people consume information. So, um, we could do a whole masterclass on We could do a whole session on that. (laughs) ... internal podcasting. So, let's put a pin in that. Let's make sure we revisit that, and for all of you listening, we're gonna bring Bridget back to do a masterclass on how to- Let's do it. (laughs) How to facilitate it. (laughs) Um, that was awesome though. Thank you so much. Everyone who's listening, uh, connect and follow Bridget on LinkedIn. I'm sure she'd be happy to kind of talk through- Absolutely. ... any more specifics or, you know, how-to things. If some of you are like, "Hey, I want to take what you did. I want to model it for us. Can I just ask you a few questions?" Like, she's amazing. So, thank you so much, Bridget. Thanks, Zach. All right, everyone. I'd be curious too, for all of you that are, are here with us, um ... Let, let me close this. Uh, she talked about recognizing outside of the work, right? And I would be curious for some of you, what is one thing outside of work that you've done recently that we could celebrate? Like, I'd, I'd be r- I would love to kind of celebrate some of you of, like, "Hey, you know what? Yes, I'm doing all these things. But right now, outside of work, this is a huge thing that I just did or I just accomplished." Like, for me, I'm training for a marathon right now. And basically, every Saturday is my personal record for miles run 'cause I've never actually ran more than miles before. And I'm like, "I ran miles this week." That's crazy. I've never ran more than 10. So it's like, what about you? What are some of the things outside of work that we could celebrate? Put it in the chat. I'd love to see what are some of the things you all are doing right now. Uh, 'cause it's amazing. It's like, when you look at the full life, it's more than just, wow, you've made this huge impact internally and you built this amazing program. You sent out this internal podcast. You started creating behaviors, uh, that are connected to values, and you worked that into this. Like, that's huge, but then you also have this huge other part of your life where you're also doing other things. What are you doing? What are some of the things you're proud of right now? Let's see what you have. Um, volunteering. Published your first children's book, Philippe, that's awesome. Cleaned out and sold the parents' house. That's, that's huge. Taught your daughter how to drive. Okay, Leslie, that had to be terrifying. Maybe a little bit, I don't know. Uh, writing a Power of Me series. That's awesome, Patricia. Uh, volunteering, re- reorganize a home office. That's huge, Denise. Joined a board. That's awesome. Led a hockey team's Stick it to Cancer event. $4,000. That's amazing. Wow. Keep adding that in there. Contributions within the autism community. I mean, it's amazing. Like, and now you start to kind of see that with the rest of the organization, your people are doing amazing stuff. And then it's like, how can we incorporate all of that and be a space? Like, how can you create the workplace as a, almost like a sanctuary of celebrating the full things that we're all doing and making an impact on, and it becames this, becomes this, like, place that people become energized by when they engage with it? It's like, whoa, when I ... Actually, like, all these things are draining and really hard, and it's frustrating, and I'm doing all this different things inside and outside of work. But when you step into work, hopefully it becomes this, like, energizing experience, right? And that's what appreciation and recognition can do when you expand it to all these different things. So, okay, let's welcome our final Impact Accelerator. Uh, speaking of recognizing someone for doing some amazing work, I just saw Jamie last week in Boston. So, for any of you in Boston, you may have seen him too. Uh, just destroying, doing an amazing job at their Disrupt HR. I don't know if any of you have been to a Disrupt HR event before. I do not envy it at all. Like, the whole framework, the, the speaking engagement, it's hard. Like, people are pressured to present on a topic in five minutes where the slides and things automatically move without you even being ready. Ready or not, you have to keep going. The format's terrifying for any speaker, right? And Jamie killed it. So let's give it up for Jamie. Thank you. He came back and he said, "I'm not totally burnt out from speaking. I want to do it again." (laughs) (laughs) And no. So, uh, I'm really excited for this, and I'm also excited to kind of bring this home with another perspective on how we can unlock a culture of appreciation through kindness and, like, what kindness means and what are the fundamentals around that and, and what are some of the ways that we can actually enable our people to do that? So, uh, Jamie, welcome to the virtual stage. Hopefully a little less pressure than- Yes. ... Disrupt HR's side, but, uh, just grateful you're here with us. Thank you. Thank you. It was so good to see you, by the way, there. And yes, th- It was like, ready or not, the slides come and they go. This is a much more, uh, relaxed environment. I'm excited to be here. I listened to the previous two speakers. Amazing. Huge shout-out to them. Now, I'm not the most technical person in the world, so let's see if I can pull up the slides. All right. So tell me if this works, and then I'm going to ... Let's see. Do this, and then this, and then this. Did this work? Uh, we see the slides, but you need to go in presenter view maybe. Okay. Let's see that. Yeah? Perfect. All right. Wow. I'm better than I thought I was. (laughs) Uh, thanks, everybody. Thanks, Zach. Thanks so much for inviting me.Um, I wanted to first talk about how I made the connection with kindness and culture, kindness and culture. And I've been working in HR for years, uh, but it wasn't until when I was asked to lead culture and inclusion at about 17,company, uh, employee company. And I had never done that before, so my work tied to it. I'm an ally, a champion, but I had never led it. So, I really had to emerge myself and study and understand what makes an exceptional employee experience. So, I started with my own. I'd been working for a while, and I was thinking, like, why at one company did I stay longer than I should have for development and opportunity-wise? And why at another company did I no- have a kind of negative, not so great first year, only to take a lateral move? So, same title, same pay, same nature of work, and actually sitting very close to where I used to, to go on and thrive for years there. And then I looked at the work that I do, the work that many of you do, and I'm pulled into a lot of things that are emotionally charged, behaviorally based, and I'm in HR, so I guess that's good that they pull me in. So it's th- leaders who are not leading effectively. They need to be developed. Uh, teams who are not collaborating. They would rather work around each other than with each other. And then some toxic folks there as well. And then I was thinking, like, why can we have one different culture, literally a cube set over from another, right? Or one floor up, one floor down. A different part of the building from another. Same company but just different pockets of culture. R- one remote experience over the other, and then it really just came to me that the biggest driver of a positive employee experience, or negative, is the way that we are treated by the people we work for and with. And with. So, I also thought, well, okay, so what, what would the remedy be for that? And I landed with kindness. And that realization led me to actually create a tool called Kind Cards. Wrote these cards, 52, 'cause they're cards, that can help develop leaders, teams, individuals. It's a tool to recognize, uh, to express, and for icebreakers and just to have the conversation about experience at work and how kindness ties to it. So, I was looking for a tool out there that actually used the word kindness at work. Couldn't find it, so it's, you know, almost like a Shark Tank thing, so I thought of it myself and I made it. Um, let's go a little bit deeper in the remedy of kindness, and the reason why I came up with that or it came to me, it's because it lands better than EQ for some people. Some people get EQ, some people don't. It resonates a little bit more than empathetic leadership. Uh, there are varying levels that people have of empathy, and it only applies leaders. And if we're talking about the work being, um, the workplace experience being heightened by people we work for and with, we need more than leaders to be kinder. Now, I know there are also personality assessments and again, they are effective. I'm Myers-Briggs certified. But I think kindness resonates with everybody. We're all experts on this call on what kindness is. We know what it feels like when somebody is kind to us, and we also know what it feels like when people are unkind to us. We see reactions when we see kindness in front of us. We're taught kindness as a kid. Say hi to the new kid. Share your sandwich with them if they forgot theirs. Same impact, same principle at work. Welcome your new colleagues. Now, how many of you get the email, "We're happy to... Please join me in welcoming Zach. We're happy to have him here. He comes to us with ABC experience. Please join me in welcoming Zach." Do you delete the email? It's okay if you do. I have as well. But welcome your new colleague and share your lunch with them if they forgot theirs or take them out. I've also come to realize that kindness is a skill. Some people are better at it than others and there's no shame there. You just need the willingness to learn and become more aware of what kindness can look like. And it will vary. Kindness, the way one extends kindness will vary. Some of it is more loud and, and out there, and some other person may extend kindness in a more subtle way. All is great. But it is a teachable skill. So, it is the right thing to do. I think we would all agree that yes, at least the baseline of civility, maybe even kindness, is the right way to treat one another at work. But there are also some financial benefits and outcomes as to why we should choose kindness at work. So, and the resources is, uh, the source is down there, Deloitte. Uh, annually, companies spend about $billion on engagement, and this could be surveys, consultants, programs, initiatives, you name it. What we do to improve it. But still, we are losing up to $billion due to disengaged workers, and that is high attrition rates, people who are not working with one another, so we're not servicing the comp- the customer the way we should. Low productivity.... quietly quitting, all of those things. And speaking of surveys, and I know it's come up on a few calls, and it is the most common way to measure engagement. But a lot of those survey items can be improved by kindness: kind acts, kind behaviors. It is kind to listen, to develop, to advocate, to care about the people we're working with. And the one thing I noticed about surveys is that a lot of these questions put the ownership of engagement on people leaders and HR folks, not so much the employees. So we really need to bring them in and ask them, how do they support well-being and engagement among their peers and their colleagues? They have a voice, and it matters as well. Again, our employee experience is mostly made up by how we are treated by the people we work for and with. And the and with part comes in inviting our individual contributors to also talk about how they spread engagement and well-being. I work with scientists, a lot of them, and they love this slide. Uh, kindness does increase oxytocin, and it does boost serotonin. So when we see those videos that we share with people, uh, about people being kind, and we feel good, it is because of this. It does feel good. And for companies who choose kindness, who champion kindness, there are some big outcomes in doing so, in addition to it- into it being the right thing. 70% are more loyal, 50% higher retention, and 20% are more productive. So again, it's the right thing to do to treat one another kindly, but there are some great outcomes. So if you heard what I just said, and it was like, "Yes, rah, rah, rah, kindness," why does it look so differently at work than it does in our personal life? I- I've been talking about sur- this for a while, and people do understand, yeah, it does look different at work. At home, we love it. We share the videos that I mentioned. We have the bumper sticker. We have the- the mugs, the shirts. To the person standing behind me, the world is better with you- you in it. I have one, "Choose Kindness." But at work, we don't hear the term kind leader. Effective leader, good leader, maybe strong leader, but I have not heard the word kind leader lately, or, uh, m- and when I can remember, last time I can remember. Or kind teams, for that matter. Why is this? So, think it's important to talk about what kindness is not, right? It does not mean I'm going to withhold my opinion. It does not mean I'm going to allow somebody to treat me the way they shouldn't. It is not weak. It is not performative. I'm going to be kind to maybe my level and up, or I'm going to be kind when I need something. It is not conflict avoidant. It is none of those things. It is very powerful. What kindness is, is clarity with care, feedback with support, extending the benefit of the doubt to your colleagues. You know you get an email, you react to it. Immediat- immediately, you want to meet that email or missile that comes into your inbox with the same energy and intensity in which you received it. Maybe there's something going on, the benefit of the doubt. Extending grace, creating a space where all voices are heard, not just the loudest ones, and not just the people with the biggest titles. Kindness, and responsibility, and accountability can co-exist. So if you think about where can you put kindness? I'm with Jamie so far. So where can you embed kindness? Well, look at your performance- performance and growth initiatives. You know, how you promote somebody, are they kind? How you measure someone's performance, I think Stephanie mentioned in a previous call, um, if or if, I think that was your name, Stephanie. Sorry if I missed it. But the how and the what, what we do and how we do it, what behaviors, what acts of kindness in there, through everyday interactions before we start a team meeting, where does kindness fit in? One on one, how does kindness fit in? The way we collaborate, where does kindness fit? And then for enterprise moments, how we hire, think of kindness. How we exit. Yes, we should exit kindly if somebody's leaving the organization. Um, if we all have company values, and I have yet to see the word kindness in them, and I study them. There was one company, I will not mention any names, but they got close to it, they said graciousness. And I'm like, graciousness, I like it, but it's kind of like one bus stop away from kindness. Why didn't we go all the way to kindness? And I think it's because of the things I talked about. People think it's weak. These are actually some of the words I got: weak, fluffy, and squishy. Their words, not mine. I'm like, all right, let's talk about it. So look for ways where you can instill kindness in any of these areas, uh, where you work. I wanna talk about DE&I for a second. Uh, it has been under scrutiny this year, and some people can't even use the term. But if you can consider kindness and acts of kindness to bridge many of those values that are beautiful about DE&I and inclusion, it is kind to get to know somebody who may be different from you, to create a welcoming enviro- environment where all people feel like they belong, to listen, to include, to respect our differences, to suspend judgment. These are all acts of kindness. So consider this to be a bridge if you're in that situation where, "Ugh..."... we have to be quiet about this stuff, which breaks my heart in a lot of ways. What we want, what everybody wants, regardless of background, is to be seen, to be heard, to be valued, to matter. Does what I say mean anything to you? It is a human want. So if we keep that in mind when we're working with people, even when it's busy, emotionally charged, when you're frustrated, keep that front of mind and it will typically lead you in the right direction. So I know this seems short, but Zach and I talk, so I wanna thank you for listening to me because now comes a really cool part because Zach and I are going to have a conversation about this topic, and you are all actually experts in this. The f- the, the focus and the lens was at work though. So I'm gonna stop sharing, and then Zach, I think we can start our thing. All right. Yes. That was, uh, that was awesome. I appreciated also hearing it kind of expanded on from last week at Boston 'cause I know you had, like, five minutes. Yeah. Now we have more time to unpack this, so. We do. Yeah. Uh, and for those of you listening, I would love to hear, like, what your experience has been with kindness. Why or why not is it in, in the workplace? And, um, I- I'm not sure how to word this question to you, but it kind of came up recently where I talked to one of our members and they shared how they have almost, like, this toxic positivity thing going on internally, where people are on maybe the wrong side of kindness where it's, like, they're overly nice, they're not having critical conversations, they're not giving feedback. Um, everyone's just positive. Everyone's just super positive about even things that they sh- like, it's not positive. Like, we need to- Mm-hmm. ... we need to be critical here (laughs) . So I'm wondering, how do you, how do you, um, balance, or what do you say or think about when we look at, okay, we want kindness in our culture. Mm-hmm. Sometimes people tend to lean too much on the extremes of what that means. How do we balance, like, the, the, the what kindness is at its essence, as you shared, where it's not this but it's this, you know? And- Right. Yeah. ... how do we, how do we live that, um, in- I love that you brought that up because I hear it a lot. And you can actually seeing it on LinkedIn, right, sometimes that people think nice and kind, nice and kind. So let me give you an example of how I view it because you're right. I s- I've heard of the toxic positivity of, like, "Really? Okay." So, uh, obviously this is not true, but if I had to give Zach some feedback, uh, about his performance, I know, here it comes (laughs) . And the c- the nice thing would be, like, "You know what? Ugh, I really like him though. Like, he's been busy. I'm just not gonna say anything. I'm just gonna... I'm just... I may tell other people, but I w- I won't tell Zach. I'm just not gonna do it right now. I'm just gonna let him keep doing what he's doing. I don't wanna rock the boat." A kind thing would be, like, to invite him in, and it's the whole clarity with care, feedback with support. It'd be like, "Hey, Zach, look, um, I'd love to talk to you about how you presented in the meeting last week. I have some thoughts, but I wanted to know how you thought it went. What feedback did you get? I have some ideas. Here's what I think went really well. If I was gonna offer some feedback on what to do differently or a little bit better, here it is. How do you see it?" And then how can I help you develop that gap or that little blind spot? Because the nice thing would- to do would, like, let him keep doing what he's doing and it could frustrate me or others and hurt his reputation or his brand. The kind thing would be to want to support him and see him win. Does that help balance your- It helps a lot. And it reminds me of... And I think I joked around about this in our, uh, last conversation about the whole, like, wouldn't you want someone to tell you that you have a booger hanging out of your nose, you know (laughs) ? Like, like... And, and I'm sure all of you listening, like, if you were at a restaurant or you were at a social gathering and you had a booger hanging out of your nose and no one told you, and then you went to the bathroom to kind of freshen up and you notice it, you'd be pissed. You'd be like, "Why didn't anyone tell me this?" And I had a direct conversation with one of my best friends and I thought they cared about me. I thought they would have been kind enough to tell me that I have this thing and it's embarrassing, it's whatever. Like, so I think that kind of reaffirms, like- That's awesome. ... it's kind to... It's, it's actually a, uh, a sense of love and kindness to- Mm-hmm. ... to point out things that people are not aware of so that they can grow, become better, support their reputation, and thrive through whatever the situation is, right? So, I think it's really important that kindness means having the difficult conversation and pulling back when you need to have that. Absolutely. It's just the way you do it. And I... There's something from the chat that just grabbed me. It was about, uh, we lack kindness right now. Um, and I just couldn't agree more because I call it a kindness deficit. I know we're jumping here, but that comment really did call out to me. Uh, this is non-work related. Uh, quick story. I was at BJ's, you know, like a Costco's? And they give out food. And there was this older woman who was giving out pomegranate seeds. And an even older woman got it and she dropped it, and it went shoo everywhere. You know how those things bounce? So I went to the woman who was giving her the seeds, I'm like, "Can I have some napkins? I'm gonna go help her." So then that woman follows me to the woman who dropped them, and I'm picking them up and both are in awe that I'm actually doing it. They're saying, "You are such a nice guy. You're being so kind," and "God bless you," one of them said. I'm like, "No, um, I said we're... I'm just, I'm just here to help you." And I... 'Cause I've been on this kindness kick, I said, "Isn't that what we're here for, to watch out for one another?" And she said, "Yes, but most people don't." And I'm like, "Right at that moment, we should be no- s- we shouldn't be so shocked...... that a person is helping out another person. And you're right, uh, Silvia, it just, I think, we lack. And I think if you see that work, when you actually are in a meeting, and this has been all about appreciation, I love what the other speakers were talking about. And when you see it, you're like, "Wow, that is..." That maybe, "I'll do that." There is a ripple effect of wanting to emulate that because again, it feels good. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it is sad. And I second that of how when you see it in public and these things happen, you're always like, "Whoa! That's an odd moment." You know, like, why, why is that such the reaction that we have now? It's like, well, yeah, people aren't kind of naturally bringing kindness into their day. And it brings me to this other thought that, again, as you're talking, I was like, kindness and even building like intentional cultures, it's easy when things are going good, you know. Like, when things are going good, it's easy to be kind to others, right? Like, when business is well, the, you know, new customers are coming in, people are staying, you know. When everything's going well, it's really easy to kind of do things and acts of kindness. But when things get tough- Oh, yeah. ... all of a sudden, people aren't buying and you're looking at budget cuts and things are tight and we need people to perform. All of a sudden, it's like you throw... (laughs) People tend to throw things out the window. So, I guess, like a follow-up question for you when, because times tend to be more tough than easy these days for a lot- Yeah. ... of companies. And we look at the cuts and layoffs and all the noise going on, like, it's really, really hard for a lot of companies right now. Um, how do we re- maintain that level of creating a culture of appreciation, um, reaffirming acts of kindness and keeping that as like, "Hey, this is actually really valuable to get us out of this hard time." You know, like- Yeah. ... how do I, what do you think about that? Like, when things are tough, how do we maintain that? It's a really great point you're making, because you're right, it is a little bit tougher lately, especially in the biotech industry where I, I'm in. And it is accountability. It's really reinforcing the message, right? Or being kinder, right? Kinder and having it more aware. So, it takes everybody to make the kindness, kindness work. So it goes back to, um, reinforcing it. And even at a town hall we had recently, we were saying, we were acknowledging it's hard. We said it's hard for everybody, so it's more important ever to be kind to each other. So, watch how we a- interact, and people are going to step into it with one another. Take perfection off your shoulders of always being kind, because you're going to make a mistake, you're going to cross a b- a boundary. But it's how we rectify that situation that makes the difference in the, how soon we do it that makes the difference. But whenever there's an opportunity to remind people, "Hey, we're going through a lot, let's acknowledge it, so this, we need to be kind to each other more than ever." And I would just look for ways to keep talking about it as a meeting opener, "Hey, we got an agenda. Let's just talk about it's been a rough week, right? So, be kind to each other, support each other." Get, says, "Anybody want to acknowledge anybody who's helped them in the last week?" So bring it up as often as you can and keep it as a reminder. Uh, we have a Kindness at Work campaign, you know, we post a card, uh, every, e- every, every twice a month, once every two weeks. So, just keep talking about it and rewarding it when you see it. Yeah. I wa- uh, it makes me think, too, of, like, that's what will probably get you out of the tough time too, right? Like, it's that peer-to-peer support connection and kind of, "Hey, we're in this together." Yeah. Let's be kind to each other. It's hard for both of us, it's hard for everyone. So we don't need to be attacking each other because we're all going through this experience. So let's kind of be kind and strategic with each other on getting out of this, so then we can celebrate. And if anything, you probably come out of it at a much deeper level, uh, from a- Yeah. ... relationship standpoint. You're probably going to have such a stronger base where you're not likely to fall into these pits and kind of these tough times as, as likely again in the future. Um, so it's, it's the very thing that you probably need to get out of that tough time. Absolutely. It is. And it will bond you. When you go through whatever it is you're going through and you're doing with kindness and you're having each other's backs and you're supporting each other and you're watching how the other person is doing and you're checking in, you will, you will thr- you, that team will be tight. Mm-hmm. And the other thing is, uh, I don't know why people want to acknowledge that things aren't happening at work that are great. Like, they don't want to talk about the layoffs that just happened. But let's talk about it. And then that gives the avenue to remind us to be kinder to each other and just say, "You know, it happened. We're going through a lot." It's not to rehash why or, or say we shouldn't have done it. It's just like, let's just acknowledge it's tough right now. That's why we need to be kinder to each other. So they go hand in hand. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like more disengagement if you just pretend it doesn't exist and you're like- Oh. ... "Hey, just don't worry about this huge thing we just did." Yep. Like, just keep doing business as usual, right? It's like, "Well, I do know that thing just happened there. Can we at least acknowledge it?" And then be kind to me being part of this experience still and we'll, we'll work through the future together. So, um- Yeah. Well, Jamie, we're coming up on time, unfortunately, at the end of the program here. But, uh, yeah, any closing words for the network as we, we bring this home? Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm reading these. Yeah. I'd love to hear, yeah, anything, uh, what mi- I'd be curious to see what might you do tomorrow when you're back at work, or even today when you go back to your desk, that you can do to influence kindness or maybe extend kindness to somebody else, kind of ti- tying back in, who might you want to recognize for being kind to you? Um, and any final thoughts that you have about kindness? Because you're all experts in this, you know what it is. Yeah. I, I, everyone, what's like one thing you can do- Yeah. ... before the week's over- Yes. ... to demonstrate kindness to someone on your team, in the organization, or even in your community? Mm-hmm. And one thing I would say to help you with what to do, I would say, one, connect with Jamie (laughs) in follow. He's always sharing amazing stuff. But also get some Kind cards. Like, maybe that's a gift that you can give yourself so you can practice this, build this muscle. It could be a gift that you also give to someone on the team or, you know, in the organization that is trying to prove and work on these things. It's a great conversation starter and thing for workshops as well. So I would say invest into something like that so you can continue to keep this top of mind so that when days are tough, you have a reminder and kind of a prompt to nudge you into being and living this way. So, um- Thank you, Zach. Yeah, there's a, there's a playbook that goes with it because not everybody's a good f- facilitator. But it's a great place to start. I appreciate you giving that a shout-out. And I'm seeing some other great ideas here. It is contagious. You see it, it's a ripple effect. That's why you want to share the video, right? Yeah. (laughs) Uh, love it. Well, thank you again, Jamie. This was wonderful. I appreciate you jumping on with our network and this was such a awesome way to kind of wrap up the program with us. Well, I appreciate you, uh, Zach, very much. It's great to see you again. And thank you everybody for hanging in. I think it was the last one, so I appreciate you listening and I, I'm seeing what you're writing. Thank you, everybody, very, very much. Have a great rest of your day, everyone. All right. Give it up for Jamie for being here with us. That was incredible. (instrumental music plays)