Bonfire Card is the force behind New Zealand’s inaugural Employee Appreciation Awards, which will be held on the 6th of March next year to coincide in with International Employee Appreciation Day. This day was created as a way to celebrate employees and all of the great work they do for their organisations, every day.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of employee appreciation, the team at Bonfire Card conducted a covert ‘social experiment’ on some of the people from their own organisation. The team needed someone with cunning and stealth to front the experiment… I was just the man they were looking for!
The Experiment
The experiment involved interviewing employees under the guise that I was a consultant doing a project on workplace culture. These interviews would be secretly filmed without the knowledge of the people being interviewed. What was captured on film wasn’t scripted in any way – the responses are all heartfelt and genuine.
In order to set up the experiment a professional cameraman, let’s call him ‘Tom’, set up in the Bonfire offices the night before. Under the cover of semi-darkness, he built a special cloaking device; a large cardboard box, into which he could conceal himself (albeit crouched) and his not insubstantial camera. The box had a small hole cut out of it to accommodate the camera lens.
On the day of the experiment ‘Tom’, arrived at the crack of dawn to avoid detection. I arrived at the gentlemanly hour of 9.00am, disguised as a consultant – jeans, business shirt (no tie) jacket; not even my closest family would have recognised me! I was met and given my instructions by Grant and Bethany from Bonfire Card’s marketing team, who co-ordinated the operation.
One by one I interviewed the employees and asked them to describe how their colleagues and managers appreciate them and if they felt appreciated for the work they do. The interviews took until 11.00am to complete – by this time ‘Tom’s’ legs were spasming from being crouched in the ‘cloaking device’ all morning. There was certainly a lot of moaning going on in between interviews!
At 11.00am the people who I’d interviewed were taken out for brunch, to thank them for their participation. While they were out of the office ‘Tom’, who was delighted to be finally out of the ‘cloaking device’, filmed the colleagues and managers of the interviewees describing what they appreciate about them.
After lunch I recalled each of the interviewees. I said, “There is one last thing I want to show you before I go.” They were then shown the film clips of their colleagues and managers appreciating them – again they had no idea they were being filmed. It was priceless seeing their reactions – clearly being appreciated meant a great deal.
Once all the filming had been completed Grant and Bethany called a meeting with the interviewees to let them know that they had been filmed and to obtain their permission to use the film. Interestingly, none of the interviewees had suspected they were being filmed despite the fact there was a large cardboard box, with a hole cut out of it in the room!
Tom and his team worked their magic in post-production, editing the hours of film that were shot to create the masterpiece that is Bonfire’s appreciation social experiment.
My insights and observations from the experiment:
- Appreciation makes us feel connected in a profound and positive way: The appreciation given by colleagues and managers during the experiment strengthened interpersonal connection. The success of humans as a species has always depended on our ability to collaborate, co-operate and adapt. Connection through appreciation strengthens our ability to do all these things well and organisations that encourage these core competencies will thrive in today’s fast changing world.
- A little can go a very long way: When the interviewees viewed the film clip of their colleagues and managers appreciating them, it touched their hearts. Leadership gurus Kouzes and Posner, in their book The Leadership Challenge (1987), identify ‘Encouraging the Heart’ as one of the key attributes of good leaders. The great thing about encouraging the heart through appreciation is that it costs little and it goes such a long way. When people feel appreciated and valued, they want to do more – the converse is also true.
- Appreciation creates a wave of positive energy: After the filming, as I walked through the Bonfire office, I sensed a wave of positive energy rising and flowing through the workplace. People were smiling and walking with a spring in their step. I realised that appreciation had not only lifted spirits of those who had been appreciated but also those who had given the appreciation. And it seems the contagion had spread to other people in the office too – me included!
- When you love your work it’s not ‘work’ anymore: During the interviews I asked the interviewees to tell me about their work. Without exception they all lit up as they proudly described their various roles. The interviewees all had a high level of appreciation for the organisation. When we feel this way about work – it’s not work anymore, it’s something much more meaningful.
- Appreciation and the bottom line: The cynics may argue that showing appreciation is a little bit touchy feely and doesn’t influence performance. They mistakenly believe that the only appreciation an organisation needs to show is the wages and salaries it pays employees. However, research is now confirming that when employees are happy at work it correlates with higher customer satisfaction, which correlates with higher company performance. Recently, Employment New Zealand published an article ‘Happy Employees Lead to Happy Customers’ (2 October 2019), which cites research by American recruitment company, Glassdoor, as evidence of this.
Final Thoughts
Bonfire’s appreciation social experiment shows that sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference. If we all committed to appreciating someone that we work with today, the ripples of this one simple act have the potential to reverberate through an organisation, a community, a city, a country and maybe even the world.
Indian independence activist Subhas Chanda Bose, said after observing Gandhi – “I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approach people with trust and affection, you would have tenfold trust and a thousand fold affection returned to you.”
Start showing appreciation in your organisation by consciously noticing the amazing things that the people around you do every day. Reflect on the difference these people make to you and your organisation. Consider how easy it is to take people and all that they do for granted. Finally, commit to action – take someone out for a coffee today and tell them what it is that you appreciate about them.
