I announced in May, 2010, the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 42nd week. The step this week is:
• Create a Company Snitch Program. Encourage snitches to snitch on their colleagues and their unheralded achievements...
Snitches until now have been those...what...rats on the ship. Their little whispers and innuendoes chew holes throughout the ship, bring dis-ease and pestilence, aka bickering and division among those who sail it, repair it, invest their lives now in sailing around the world to compete in the global marketplace.
Until now.
It’s not the behavior that’s the problem. We love stories. We love to hear them and tell them. Snitches are just one way, one vehicle, one media to tell stories.
It's the wrong stories being told. Too often, anyway.
But you, yeah you, can change that. You can reward the right snitch telling the right story.
And, the right story is the story of all the unsung heroes in your organization. The unsung heroes and their unsung heroic accomplishments that too often go uncelebrated, unrewarded, in every organization of every size.
Here’s what you do. I’ve done it.
Create a snitch program. That’s right. Encourage snitchers to share ...stories of heroes they see around them. Stories of heroes and their heroic unsung accomplishments are what you want. These stories abound once you make a habit of seeing them, celebrating them and rewarding them.
This might take some time. As CEO, I needed 2-3 months. I announced the program to resounding skepticism. We would include on each monthly meeting’s agenda time for people to snitch on each other. We all are doing outstanding work in our own areas. Too much, really, for one person to recognize all the time and too important to go unrecognized, too. If they didn’t feel comfortable coming forward with a snitch like that they could tell me. I would share that snitch anonymously at the meeting.
At the first meeting, I was the only one that snitched. I pointed out little heroic acts that saved customers or kept our servers up and running or landed a big whale account or delivered invoices on time...A snitch for almost everyone. There were smiles and nods of approval. And the meeting ended with a little lift in everyone’s spirit.
The next month I had a few such snitches to share from others in the company who recognized the efforts of those around them. Still, they wished to remain anonymous as the source. I shared mine and then I shared the stories of heroism I received from everybody else. The spirits raised even higher.
The 3rd month, the snowball started to roll. We went around the room and everyone had a snitch to share. I think we could have gone around the room twice. It was a feeding frenzy of positivity and recognition, celebration and emotional rewards and yes, alignment of our decisions with our purpose and our connections with each other.
And so it continued.
Word-of-mouth in marketing is about giving the customer something positive to say, inspiring them to share your accolades. Employee recognition is no different. Give people an excuse and a reward for sharing their stories of heroic accomplishments and they will. Find a way to report on it. celebrate them, celebrate the telling. And people will. Even the snitches.
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You can start with any week of the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan and make that your first week.
You can take one of those weeks and turn it into a month or commit to an accelerated pace and complete 6 of the weeks in one month.
You can create your own week of employee recognition. Share that journey here. Share it in your blog or Twitter or Facebook.
But, do something to recognize your employees! They set your brand apart as your ultimate competitive edge.
And the more you recognize their achievements, the more achievements you'll see and they'll enjoy, along with your customers and and shareholders, partners and vendors.
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