Bob Nelson's Tip: The Values Awards & An Unexpected Kindness II
This week’s quote is from Rae Kavanagh at the Delphi National Benefit Center of MetLife:"We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released."
—Jean Houston
The Values Awards
Do your formal award programs lack freshness, excitement or personal meaning? Most do. In fact, research indicates that program freshness is one of the primary concerns reported by most organizations in regards to their formal recognition programs. If stale programs are a challenge for your organization as well, you have to try The Values Awards process like the one created by Mario Tamayo, a recognition consultant and celebrations expert I recently interviewed.
Bob: Mario, where did the idea come from for The Values Awards?
Mario: It really started about 25 years ago when I was working for General Dynamics and we were looking to do two things: (1) to create formal awards based on the core values of the organization and (2) to do it in a way that had exceptional personal meaning. In the late 90s, I took the process with me, refined it a bit, and re-launched it at the Ken Blanchard Companies. That’s when the process really started to gel.
Bob: So how does it work and why does it work so well?
Mario: The secret to the process is that it’s employee-driven. Employees nominate people for awards, validate nominations, select winners, make the awards, and present them. After publicizing the awards and what to look for, we encourage everyone to “catch people doing things right.” There are several awards per company value. Employees nominate their peers for the awards for specific work behaviors that result in effective outcomes—that is, actions that get the organization and themselves closer to their goals. And they do it in a way that promotes their core values. So the overall result is that people are encouraged to continue working with each other, for the company, and for themselves.
Bob: Can you give an example of an award?
Mario: Sure. We created the Timex Man of the Year Award at General Dynamics to promote a “perseverance” value. It’s still one of the most popular and meaningful awards. It was a hybrid of Time Magazine’s Man of the Year and Timex watches. You might remember the ad campaign about the watch that “took a licking but kept on ticking.”
Bob: I do remember that commercial. So how does the validation and selection process work and how are the awards given?
Mario: We have a group of employees who take each nomination sheet and check out to see if it things happened as claimed, and once verified, they make a slate of the top nominations for each award. Then everyone votes. The numbers get tabulated and winners are identified but not announced until the awards event, much like the Academy Awards.
Bob: So all the awards are employee-made?
Mario: That’s right -- and employee-presented as well! We ask employees to volunteer to CREATE the awards that would be given out, using common items from their home. We encourage them to recycle things found in their garages and attics, even thrift shops.
Bob: What was the response to that request?
Mario: Everyone loved it! People are more creative than we tend to give them credit for; they loved being involved in personalizing the awards and we even gave them the opportunity to present the awards they had created if they wanted, which most of them did. For example, at the inaugural awards event we held at Blanchard, the first award presenter was someone who had made the award she was presenting. She got pretty emotional in sharing what the award winner had done and how that influenced how she created the award. When the winner of the award got to the stage, both presenter and winner cried and hugged each other, while the whole company—about 250 people at the time—gave them a standing ovation. I can’t tell you how many times that continues to happen. And you have to wonder that for every award, there are at least TWO individual winners, besides the company.
Bob: I know I’m constantly amazed at the creativity I see day-in and day-out on the topic of recognition. For example, Jennifer Patterson, co-owner of California Music Studios in Carlsbad, CA, recently created the F.O.R.T.E Award for Teaching Excellence, where the acronym stands for Fine, Outstanding, and Resourceful Teachers of Excellence (forte being a musical term meaning “loud, forceful, and strong”). It does seem, however, that asking employees to create awards would cause a lot of pressure on them to do things “right”—to make sure the awards were of professional quality. Mario: It really didn’t work out that way at all. People have fun with the awards: what they are given for and how they are made. For example, the Timex Person of the Year Award I mentioned ended up being an oversized Timex watch, that was smashed and glued back together and mounted on a varnished board with a little brass plate for the award name, the person’s name, and the date. Nothing too fancy, but fun nonetheless! Of all the awards, plaques and certificates a person receives over the years, it’s the ones that are made from the heart that tend to mean the most to them. For the outstanding performances that matter the most to the organization we’ve had some truly outstanding creations—everything from acrylic paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and mobiles, to poems and songs. And each award is usually made for under $20.
Bob: So the cost of the program is pretty much limited to the price of a dinner?
Mario: Yes, but that’s not to say that such a program can’t augment an existing rewards program that was in place, such as a rewards program that used points, gift certificates or gift cards. The key difference is in getting people personally involved so that awards mean more to everyone—the recipients, the presenters and the company in general – even vendors, college interns, volunteers, and business and community partners. Our process focuses on what really matters to the company and everyone involved. It connects people in a meaningful, effective way. It really is the ultimate in recognition.
Bob: So besides helping set up the communication, guidelines and mechanics of such a program you’re on hand to help individuals brainstorm and create fantastic awards?
Mario: Exactly. We help people to engage, and more times than not, it then takes off from there—people really do love it! We’re just now creating an easy-to-use, turnkey process to help any organization get immediate results with this same process.
If you have questions or would like help setting up The Values Awards process in your organization, contact Mario Tamayo directly at 760-846-0714 or via email at MarioAwards@roadrunner.com.
An Unexpected Kindness II
Cindy Breyer, HR Manager for Precision Diagnostic Services in Fargo, North Dakota shares this story after reading my Tip of the Week on 3/7/07 about an exceptional service experience I had at Hampton Inn:
“After reading your story, it reminded me of a similar story & thought I’d share. My sister has been in the hospital for the past 6 weeks. She was near death and will have some further complications in her life. She is a single parent with a 7 year old boy. The person she will remember most??? An elderly gentlemen (looked like he could be retired) delivered her lunch tray almost every day. He always tried to cheer her up. One day he came and said she really looked sad. He asked if he could sing her a song – and she said yes. He sang the most lovely song and DID cheer her up. This gentleman was a food service worker and just went out of his way to make her feel better.”
Bob comments: Cindy, you’ve reminded me of a similar story when my mother was in the hospital with some serious complications. I was visiting and asked her who the potted plant was from next to her bed. She beamed “It’s from one of the orderlies—he said I reminded him of his mother!” My mom died a few days later and I never got a chance to meet or thank that person who went out of his way to be so thoughtful, but I was able to see the positive impact he had on my mom in the last few days of her life. For that I’ll always be grateful.Thanks Rae, Mario, Jennifer & Cindy!Bob Nelson
Bob Nelson, Ph.D., is president of Nelson Motivation Inc.; a frequent presenter to management groups, conferences and associations; and a best-selling author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (now in it’s 51st printing), 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, The 1001 Rewards & Recognition Fieldbook, Managing For Dummies, The Management Bible, among others. Register for Bob's free Tip of the Week at www.nelson-motivation.com; email Bob directly at bobrewards@aol.com.
p.s.: If you haven’t already, please plan on attending the National Association for Employee Recognition (NAER) annual conference April 29-May 2 in historic Savannah, GA, featuring speakers (including me) and best practices from Southwest Airlines, Boeing, MetLife, Verizon Wireless, MIT, Wells Fargo, Spectrum Health, Maritz Motivation, among others. For more information or to register for this recognition-sharing conference, visit:
http://www.recognition.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=142
posted by TCSExpress @ 11:31 AM
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