Appreciation@Work: Opening Keynote — Appreciation and Recognition as the Backbone of Resilience & Connection

I'd love to welcome a good friend of mine to the virtual stage. Uh, advisor, friend, mentor to the Achievement Network in so many different ways, international speaker on employee appreciation, uh, founder at Beyond Thank You, let's give it up for the amazing Christopher Littlefield. Christopher, welcome. Thank you, Zeck. It's wonderful to be with you again this year. And before I even jump into what we're talking about, and Zeck, if you want to pull the slide down for a second, I want to pause and just everybody in the chat, can we give a little love out to Zeck right now? I actually got a little award for you right here, it even says your name on it, right? But I want you to just say one thing you really appreciate about Zeck into the chat right now. So if you've interacted with him at a program, at an event, get th- this is a person who's doing event after event pulling us together to create these learning opportunities that happen in the middle of our week while there's little ones at home and everything that's going on, folks. We would not be here if we didn't have these people who bring community together in a time when we're so divided. So Zeck, there's a lot of love coming in the chat right now. But we need to be, sometimes be the invitation to make sure that people feel seen and valued and heard for who they are and what they contribute. So before we jumped in to do that, I just wanted to share that right there to make sure that we're all giving the love to the people who bring us together. (laughs) Awesome. Thank you, Chris. Awesome. Thank you, Zeck, for the introduction. Folks, for the people that I've met before, it's wonderful to be able to see you again. For the folks I haven't met before, I'm Chris Littlefield, I'm the founder of a company called Beyond Thank You. I, um, my background is not from HR. My background is actually from international conflict resolution work. So I started my career facilitating dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, Greek and Turkish Cypriots. And then, uh, running, uh, dialogues between people, uh, from senior UN leaders to some of the toughest dialogues of all between people from sales and finance, and if you're working with those departments, you know what I'm talking about. But my job was to open up dialogues for people to have the conversations that matter most. And Zeck, today, I'm gonna have my slides, I think, up in my screen here, so if you want to pin me for PL, you'll see it. But today, I want to take the conversation. And so I went from working in conflict resolution to employee appreciation recognition after watching a two-year toxic dynamic with a coworker transform overnight through a 15-minute recognition activity. And so I started working on training people in the art of recognition and engagement, and helping people first update our mindset so we'd realize that recognition isn't all about the rewards and the awards, right? But about the little things that we do that make the biggest difference. And today, I'm excited to take this conversation further to talk about how appreciation and recognition is, one, more important than ever right now, but it's also the backbone of our resilience and our connection with one another. Now, anybody here been just, you know, it's been a little rough lately. Uh, hold on. I am trying to find my cursor. There it is, okay. Anyone find that you're just exhausted and fried most days at the end of the day? Give me a Y into the chat right now if that's for you. If a Y- if you're coming home, you're feeling fried, you're feeling exhausted. And many times, you come home and you just want to binge-watch Netflix. And you know you should go to bed. And if anyone's ever had this happen, give me an amen into the chat. You know you should go to bed, but instead of going to bed, you just say, "One more episode." You stay up too late, you're grumpy pants the next day, you're trying to caffeinate yourself (laughs) through the day. And now here's the question. Why is it that we know we should just go to bed, but we hit that one more episode? It's 'cause Hollywood understands something, and some days we're just trying to reclaim our day or we don't want tomorrow to (laughs) start. But many times, it's 'cause Hollywood understands something, that uncertainty makes movies exciting and addicting. We want to know what happens. But it's the uncertainty that makes life absolutely exhausting. And we faced a level of uncertainty over the last phase. And it's funny, I created this slide in the pandemic saying we've been pickled in anxiety. But I don't know about you, I don't feel like we've ever gotten out of that jar. That the same uncertainty just keeps on going on right now, whether it's what's going on in the world with global politics, politics, the division, government shutdown for any of you folks who are in Washington DC right now who are really feeling it. I think one in every other house on my street, somebody is out of work right now. And that nonstop uncertainty that we face, it takes a toll. But here's the thing, change is normal. We face change every single day. Change isn't the hard part, transition is. If anyone ever read the book by William Bridges, is change is normal, transition is the mental process we go through around change. And I want you to think for a second about your ability to be agile, flexible, adaptable, and resilient in the face of change and ongoing uncertainty. And I want you to think about your ability to be able to pivot when you feel fully charged, you feel valued, you feel recognized, you enjoy seeing your coworkers every day and a change happens. We still get frustrated, but we pivot. And then I want you to think about how you relate to change when you're fried, when you don't feel valued, when you don't feel appreciated, when you feel like people only reach out to you when you need something, and then all of a sudden a change happens, whatever. Where we sit there, we get stuck, and we hold onto our old way of doing things, and we struggle to pivot. Some of you in HR, you know who these folks are. And we deal with it nonstop. But here's the challenge. When I go into organizations, I find that people tend to be at one of each level, and we're always fluctuating. We're either working with each other, where our time and energy goes to doing the work and living our lives outside of work, right? But...Has anyone ever noticed that sometimes we find ourselves doing extra work and we spend our time navigating around each other? Give me a why in the chat here if you've ever spent way too long drafting an email before, right? Because you're worried about ups- (laughs) Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Right? Where we're working around each other, or even worse, when it gets toxic and we're working against each other. Right? And here's the thing, if we want to have our energy going to doing our work and living our lives outside of work that we're doing the job for, we need to spend as much time as possible up in that part up at the top there, and we're constantly fluctuating. But here's the thing, there's one key ingredient that if we want to stay up there top, it needs to be there. And many of you have heard of this before, but there was work done by, uh, Google when they wanted to understand what made those top-performing teams, those ones who are constantly up there, that are producing the most innovative results. They studied of their top-performing teams, and they had all these theories. Was it people from the top universities? The right mix of personalities? Or people who hung out all the time outside of work? And in the end, none of that mattered. What was the one thing that mattered? I know many of you know what this is already. Go ahead and put it into the chat. The one thing that was common among every single one of these teams is they all reported that they had the experience of being psychologically safe at work. Right? Feeling psychologically safe at work. Now, this is a buzzword, and I actually went out to work with L'Oreal last year, and this is one of their values. And the challenge is many times when people think of psychological safety, they think it's about, like, not giving tough feedback, or being more se- being overly sensitive at work, or we can't joke each, with each other at work anymore if we want to create psychological safety, but that's the exact opposite. When we have psychological safety, when we have a problem, we bring it up to the person. When we have a challenge or we see something going wrong, instead of sitting there quiet in our corner knowing that the train's about to crash, we actually bring it up. And when somebody jokes around and we do a joke and it oversteps a boundary, we go to that person to tell them instead of to HR. So, psychological safety, that belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, or concerns, mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking, this is Amy Edmondson, who's the one who actually coined the term. And here's the thing, there's a cost when we don't have psychological safety. 88% to 78% complain to others, 66% are doing extra and unnecessary work ruminating the problem or getting angry. There's a cost to our organization. But here's the thing, psychological safety, psychological safety is not some outcome we produce. It's a status, like trust, that we maintain. And here's the thing, resilience, flexibility, agility are only possible when we have psychological safety, but psychological safety is only possible when we have strong, authentic relationships, and those are only possible when people feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are and what they contribute. Now, if you have been to any one of my programs before, then one of the big things that my mission in life is to help people update their understanding around recognition and appreciation. 'Cause many times we collapse the rewards and awards and we think that, okay, I gave out this gift card, I've done the recognition thing, or they feel like it's a program that they participated in. But here's the thing, here are the key actions that actually have people feel seen, heard, and valued at work, and this is what I call the inverted pyramid of importance, and the reason why it's inverted is that whenever we have a recognition pyramid, we always put the awards and the rewards up at the top, where those play the smallest role. They do play an important role, and we need to have those things there, but at the base of our relationship is appreciating the person, acknowledging the circumstances, right? Recognizing effort and progress, and we're gonna talk about these three today, and the goal of all of them is to ensure the people feel valued. Now, the first one that I want to talk about is appreciating the person. Now, similar to trust, and specifically in these divided times when people are often being pinned against each other, when we're hearing somebody say one thing or, you know, family members posting something (laughs) on Facebook, and then all of a sudden we write them off, similar to trust, appreciation is relationship-based, and each interaction we have with someone either strengthens or weakens that invisible connection. The more we feel appreciated, the stronger those bonds become, and the more the tension they w- can withstand when something challenges it. Now, I want to talk about some of the things that often challenge our relationships at work. Now, how many people have ever had this happen before? You are burnt out, you're fried, or you see a burned-out and fried employee walk into the office, and then someone comes in the office and they go, "How are you doing?" "What do you want?" And all of a sudden, our burnout, our frustration ends up getting dumped onto somebody else. If you've seen this happen in the workplace, give me a why into the chat right now. Now, I heard a really great quote the other day where somebody shared, "Emotional intelligence is being unwilling to inflict our bad mood onto somebody else." Emotional intelligence is being unwilling to inflict our bad mood onto somebody else. And so right now, I want to talk a little bit about self-care. But I don't know about you, I see these things, these posters, and you, you come into, like, the supermarket and it goes, "Three things for a happier, healthier you," and it, excuse my language, pisses me off, because it paints this picture that self-care is easy. How many people know what you should do to take care of yourself, and you still struggle to do it? Give me an amen in the chat if you can relate to this. Right? We know, like, appreciation, uh, is easy to do. Recognizing someone, appreciating someone, saying thank you to someone is common sense and it's easy. The challenge is getting ourself to do it in the midst of all the stress and uncertainty is not easy. Now, here's what often tends to happen, how many people, you come back from that, you know, the beginning of the year or from a vacation and you're like, "You know what? This year, I'm gonna have boundaries, I'm not gonna work late, I'm not gonna stay late, I'm gonna do this."And then, all of a sudden, three weeks go by and you're back there again. And give me a little cheer in the chat if you, if you know what I'm talking about. Now, why this often tends to happen is we often come back and we've got our work. And we pick up our job and we come in and we go, "Okay, yep. I can do that job. Oh, sure. You need an extra presentation? Yeah, I can do that. Um, oh, wait, what, what do you mean? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you need the, you need the budget right now? Okay, I can do the budget. Okay. Oh, what do you mean? Holiday shopping? Yeah, I can do the holiday shopping. Sure, I can do it. And then, oh, uh, and Halloween too? Yeah, I can do that." If you can relate to this, give me an amen in the chat. And then, all of a sudden, somebody walks into your office and they go, "Hey, can I have five minutes of your time?" And you go, "No!" And all of a sudden, we explode out because this stuff sneaks up on us without even realizing it. And then, all of a sudden, here we are and we've got to clean up the mess that gets created when we do that. So part of it is, one, we need to get better at understanding our own gauge. And we need to get clear on understanding why this often happens. Is that, this is from the book Resident Leadership, uh, by Richard Boyatzis and talks about if you can sleep and sleep and still wake up feeling exhausted, one of the reasons why, right, is we start out over on the gray with effective leadership. And then we start sacrificing doing those things that we know we need to do to take care of ourselves. Then crisises that aren't crisises, like, uh, doing a load of laundry or, like, somebody comes in and goes, "Hey, can we talk for five minutes?" And all of a sudden, "Why?" Right? So sleep takes care of our body, but doesn't take care of our mind. And in their research, they found that if we want to decrease our cortisol levels, if we want to decre- increase that dopamine and that oxytocin, they found that there were only four things that were proven to do it. Right? Sleep doesn't do it. Takes care of the body. The four things we need is mindfulness and self-reflection, where we get present to who we are and what we're contributing. That sense of hope that we're moving forward, even when we feel like we're not getting anywhere. That compassion, that feeling recognized and appreciated by others, and that fun and laughter, which I hope is part of what we're doing right now. Now, one thing I want to point out here for everyone is that many times one of our challenges is that we start our week out and we have things on our to-do list that we want to get done. Then, we get to the end of the week and say we get things done. And even though you got things done on your to-do list and half of those weren't on your to-do list in the beginning of the week, where does your mind go? Our mind often goes to the gap, the gap between the result we want to produce and the result we actually produced. And the challenge is, the way we burn ourselves out and our people out is we focus all of our work on, how do we overcome the cap? Why didn't we do this? Why didn't you do that? Why didn't you get this done? If you can relate to this, give me a yes in the chat. And the thing is, getting those things done, do we just come in on Monday and nobody interrupts us, no conversations, nothing's going on at all? No, we come in and then all of a sudden a- a work comes in and somebody comes in and they're called out sick, and then they can't do their job. And then all of a sudden a policy change and then there's tariffs and a government shutdown. And then all of a sudden your favorite new season of Bridgerton comes out and you're distracted and you stay up too late and you don't sleep. And your kid gets sick and you can't do this and it's gone. And all those things I lifted up, if this, if you feel seen right now, just say seen in the chat. And this, by the way, is what you're dealing with at work, this is what you're dealing with at home, and this is what goes on inside of our head. Folks, this is what people want to be recognized for and seen for. The problem is we don't see it. And the way that we burn ourselves out is we only focus on this gap and we miss everything else. Right? And so if we want to get better at this, we need to stop treating our minds like a trash can. We need to stop treating it like a trash can and think about what are we putting into our minds from the moment we wake up? Are you getting on and reading the news and then getting in traffic and getting pissed off? I saw there's a lot of people in DC, you're on and you're already angry, right? Then we get in and we look at our to-do list, we open our emails. Uh, we'll all of a sudden have to deliver ... We, instead of giving feedback, we just get frustrated and we sit in our head. Then we go out and we eat. We forget that what we put into our mind through our eyes and our ears is like what we put into our mouth. It impacts how we feel. And we need to be conscious that throughout our day with everything that's going on with our coworkers, that we're intentionally taking time to say, "Hey, I'm gonna start and just think about a few things I'm appreciative for. I'm gonna give a compliment to a family member. While I'm on my, uh, on my way into work, I'm gonna send a note of appreciation to some people. I'm gonna stop and reflect about some of the things I'm grateful for in the world. I'm gonna go and recognize somebody else." And remember that we need to intentionally think about what we're putting into our minds and to each other's minds. Now, one simple thing that I often share in my work, right, is called the Fantastic Five Reflection. And this is something, I actually did this at, uh, at bedtime with my daughter last night, is simply go e- ... And go ahead and take a screenshot of this right here. Is simply ask yourself, if we want to take care of ourselves and others, think of what's one thing that you accomplished each day. One person you helped or supported, one memorable moment, one thing you learned, and one thing you're grateful for. And remember that what we put into our mind through our eyes and ears impacts how we feel. And the conversations and the questions we ask impact what other people put into their mind. And so by incorporating these into our work, into our conversations with family members, just asking a different question changes our whole relationship to somebody else. Oh, I love you just put that into the chat right there. Thank you, Zach. Okay? So remembering that. Now, the other thing that I want to talk about today that I think is really, um, important to acknowledge right here. And by the way, no names when I put this up here, is I want you to think about another thing that gets in the way of nurturing a culture of appreciation is the labels we put on people. And I want you to think about who are your green and who are your red button people. And if you've got an iPhone, you know what I mean by this. Is when somebody calls, all of a sudden there's a green button to accept and then there's a red button to avoid. And I want you to think of who are the people that no matter what's going on, you pick up the phone?And who are the red button people that, when all of a sudden, their name comes up on your phone or their email comes in your inbox, you immediately (laughs) get anxious, or you're like, "Voicemail"? And some of you thought of somebody. Now, here's the thing. Those green button people, usually the ones that we feel appreciated and valued by. Now, the challenge is those red button people. Many times, what we've done is we've put a label on them. We decided at one point in time that they are maybe a jerk. Maybe there's a word that we can't put up on the screen right now. But I want you to think for a second, what labels have you put on them? And if you've ever felt like you've been labeled at work, you know the impact it has. We don't feel seen. We don't feel heard. We feel like people are communicating to the label that people have put on us. Maybe we were late on a project once, and then all of a sudden, we get labeled that we're unreliable. Nobody can count on us, or they don't ask the right questions. They're not strategic enough, or whatever it is. And the thing to remember is that we are the ones who put the labels on others, and so we're also the ones who take the labels off of people. And right now, in a world where we are just seeing people's opinions online and all the rest, and they're a dem, they're a lib, they're a whatever it is, it's really easy to shut the door and forget that we have no clue what's going on in that other person's world. And when we have labeled them, we stop seeing the person. And so many times, there's things going on in people's worlds. I had a friend I, I talked to the other day. I called him. I go, "Hey, how are you doing?" He goes, "Good. My sister died yesterday of a drug overdose. Uh, what's going on in your world?" If he hadn't shared that, I wouldn't have known. So many times, we think we know what's going on in people's worlds where we have no clue. And if we take time to understand people and to challenge those labels we put on them, by taking time to appreciate them a little bit, then we start to see the person again, and we give them an opportunity to do it. Now, here's a simple thing that we can do to remove labels, is appreciation through understanding exchange. Now, I told you that my past work is in international conflict resolution. The way a mentor of mine used to say, that 90% of conflict resolution is understanding the other side's point of view. And so a simple thing that we can do, and I just kicked this off with a group over at Emirates Airlines last week, is that many times, we have put a label on somebody else. Now, don't go tell them, "You've got a label on them." But, "Hey, you know what? I was in a workshop the other day, and they were talking about appreciation through understanding. And I'm just curious, I would love to learn more about what it takes to do your job that I don't see." Each person, answer these questions yourself. What's part of my job that, uh, that I love the most? What do I wish people understood about what it takes to do my job that nobody sees? The people I work best with understand the following about me. And what matters most to you right now at work and home? And just invite the person to a coffee. And instead of just chatting about work or gossiping about each other, instead, just interview and say, "I'd love to learn a little bit more about you and what you do and what it takes to do your job each day." And if we do that, and I challenge you right now, if there's a person you thought of when I said, "Red button," make an active role over the next couple weeks to just challenge that perspective and say, "Hey, what label did I put on them? What maybe I'm missing about that person?" And think about also, what are a couple attributes about that person that really frustrate me but I secretly kind of admire? Maybe they always speak up, and they always ask questions when I'm scared to. Maybe they say no to things when you struggle to. And many times, you'll see aspects about them that you really appreciate or how they help you grow, and see if you can just take a minute to be able to recognize that. Now, in the last couple minutes, I just wanna talk about a few things that are crucial when it comes to nurturing that culture of appreciation. Now, one, let me get to the slide here, is, oh, here it is, is at the heart of our relation around appreciation is about building real human connection. And the simplest things that we can do is, one, just asking that second question. Not, "Hey, how are you?" Which shows people that you're just being polite, but, "How are you really doing?" Or, you know what? That question I used in the beginning today, oh, I didn't actually use it in the beginning, is ask people when you join your meetings, "What were you doing five minutes before this meeting today?" Or one of my favorite questions to ask, "What does it take to your job that nobody sees?" And I'm guessing if I asked you that question, you'd put it into the chat right now, and I only have a few minutes left so I'm gonna keep on going, is that there's huge parts of your jobs that you'd love to be appreciated for. All the ones that are over here in the squiggly lines that nobody sees. And when we ask that question, we give people an opportunity to be able to share those things. Because when it comes to appreciating people, and this is an article I wrote, uh, on HBR, and by the way, I actually have a document on my site, 80+ Ways to Nurture a Culture of Appreciation. Go to beyondthankyou.com and you'll find it. But we need to appreciate people for their presence, their ideas, their contributions, their lives outside of work, and their growth. And then we need to create opportunities to be able to see them. Now, when it comes to appreciation, if anybody's struggling to get people to recognize people at work, a simple thing that we can do, I often do in my workshop in our recognition, is remind leaders that what we recognize gets repeated, and if we want to be able to bring out the best in people, one of the reasons why people don't recognize others is that they don't know what to recognize them for. So, simply ask leaders, and this is a great exercise for you to do, is, what are the attitudes, actions, and behaviors of the people that you appreciate the most? What is it they do specifically? Why do you appreciate it? And what's the impact it has on you, the team, or the organization? And have them think about three different things, and then pick one behavior that is critical for the success of their department. And then just have them actively look for that one thing over the next couple weeks and find opportunities to be able to do that. Okay? Now, I wanna share an- I'm gonna give you a couple rapid fire ideas afterwards. But one thing I do wanna call out is it doesn't matter...... all of the amazing things we do, all the appreciation and recognition, all of that, if we don't also address some of the challenging behavior. Because I can tell you in organizations, people say, "Oh, I did this and I did that," and we appreciate people and we do all these events, but then they never address the name-calling, the eye-rolling. By the way, th- those are jokes at other people's expenses. The dominating, the not paying attention, criticizing without context, interrupting, is they never call out the behavior. And our cultures are only as strong as the worst behavior that we're willing to accept. And if we're letting behavior go by without ever addressing it, right, and we need a whole seven hours to talk about this at work, but I wanna call it out. But one simple thing that you can do to actually have people think critically about the kind of environments they're doing, is on my website, on that homepage there, is a team relationship building assessment. And these are the questions that I've found are most critically important to get a sense of where we're really at. And when you're on there, on those questions, "Do we laugh and play together? Do we know each other? When we make a mistake, do we feel safe to speak up?" Those questions will give y- give you a little more clarity about where you can start when it comes to shifting your culture. Okay? And by the way, if you sign up for that and you go and get it, a couple days from now you're gonna get a follow-up email from me with a little video in it, my email. And if there's questions you wanna ask, you can just email me directly back with that, with any questions you have from that. Okay? But as we finish up here, I just wanna share some rapid fire ideas, is one, we do need to think about creating moments that matter. And if you've seen the show The Office, it's minutes long. And everything in The Office is all about what we do in between our work, right, to build and maintain those relationships. And I realized the other day, the episodes are minutes long. That's 4.5% of your day. Right? And by the way, they were able to retain people in the paper industry for years. Right? We wanna apply that as work as well. Okay. So simple things we can do is question of the day. And in those downloads, there's meeting questions. Pick one question, post it up around your office, start your meeting with it when you come in. Thanksgiving is coming up. When you start your meeting, you can have a Thanksgiving check-in. Like, what Thanksgiving dish best represents your energy level today? Go ahead and throw it into the chat if you want. Okay? In a couple weeks, on my newsletter when it comes out, I will send this out, is a simple recognition stocking. If you're in the office, you print out the one page, fold it over. You can make this on Canva in two seconds. Staple it down the side. Put out some Post-it notes or print out some things and have people write notes of appreciation to each other at the end of the year. A simple thing that we can do, and one of my favorite ones, and if you haven't done this before, I learned this recently and it's a really great way to finish the year, is get all of your leaders ... Ooh, pecan pie. I'm with you on that. Is get all your leaders at the end of the year to sit down and write a letter to each one of their people about what I learned from you this year. Think about that. What I learned from you, is that we often share, people share with us what they learn from us and how they're growing and develop, but one of the greatest gifts we can give is we can show our employees we also learn from them in the process. Okay? Now, the last two things I wanna share, and this is something I often go into in more detail but today was only minutes, right, is also reflective recognition. Um, and there's an article on this on my site, but the thing to remember is that we don't see 98% of what people deal with every day. We don't see what they won appreciate for, we just see the result. So try just asking people, "Hey, what's some of the work you do that I don't see?" And as they share, just ask questions. "What did it take to do what you did? How were you able to get there? How were you able to do that?" And that invitation for them to share is one of the simplest and easiest ways to merc- sh- make sure they feel valued. And at the heart of the matter, people just wanna pre- be appreciated for who they are, what they contribute, and what it takes for their job. And so with that, folks, today, be the reason why someone day, someone's day improves. Thank you very much, and I appreciate your time today. Okay. Take care. And if you have questions, I can stay on for a bit and answer that. I know that was rapid fire. You're welcome. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, folks. Chris, blown away, my man. Thank you so much. I mean, mind blown. Yeah, put it in the chat, like what are some of the things that you wanna do after that session? I mean, I took so many notes. I love the letter. I think that is one big one. Like, handwritten letters in today's world is one of those hidden gems that when you get one, you, you keep it. Like, I have handwritten letters in a box that I've kept for years, because people don't do 'em anymore, right? And I think that can go a long way. I think I love appreciating the pers- person, you know, thinking about their presence, their ideas, their contributions, like kind of tapping into that. The rud- the red button people too. (laughs) Like, I was laughing 'cause I have like five or six of those people, especially when you think about your clients or certain members of your team where you got, you have to work together but b- I mean, there's just like a personality trait that frustrates you. But like you said, I'm like, actually really secretly admire that. It kinda like makes me, like, I actually wish I had that attribute, you know? Yeah. So. Well, and I think with, I think with that is, the, the, the moment that shifted, and I'll just say this quick as a, as a reminder for folks, is the moment that shifted for me with my team, where it was a two-year toxic dynamic, was a person I could not stand. Mm. And it was the moment where I realized, that she was from Azerbaijan and she was facilitating a dialogue from people from her own country, when I actually understood what it took for her to do that, when I took time to really understand what it took for her to do her job and to be her in the field that we're in, that's where my whole relationship changed and that's what sparked me doing what I'm doing. So that one little gesture to be able to see that person whose views conflict with yours, that piss you off, make you angry, that exercise of doing it is one of the greatest ways for us to be able to grow, and to be able to resolve some of the tension that we're dealing with in our society. And that's why appreciation and recognition matters so much right now, 'cause it's an invitation to connect in a more meaningful way. It's amazing. Thank you, Chris. Thank you for kicking us off. You set the tone for the day. So everyone, please show your appreciation for Christopher for really doing that. And seriously, check out those resources that he shared. Go to his website. I'll re-share his LinkedIn, 'cause that's what I have here ready. Uh, you can follow him there as well. Uh, but reach out. Obviously doing incredible work, have amazing resources that you can get for free. And then on top of that, if you're ever looking to kind of take the next step and really level up your leaders, some- like bring these things to life, I'm sure he'll be happy to have a chat with you. So Christopher, thank you so much. Thank you again. Thank you, folks. Check out the YouTube channel too. Lot of videos on there that cover this stuff in more depth. Okay. Take care. (instrumental music plays)