In other words…

The work my team did (with you) was a catalyst to creating an open dialogue on my team with respect to health and wellness. Many of my team members have acknowledged the difference it has made for them and their families to put the tools and processes in place to create a more balanced and peaceful life.

We began engagement in our work on Effectiveness and Presence at the same time that we were also starting a journey to create a safer environment within the workplace…we reduced our injuries by 50% each year. While there were many new tools and processes put in place, I think that the work with your team allowed my leaders to connect with their personal commitment to every person’s health and wellness in their organization. From that context, we were able to create an environment where Safety was more than mandates and processes, it was clearly a heartfelt commitment and value that took hold throughout our region.

This is only a small start, and I wanted to at least provide a couple of critical items as acknowledgement of the contribution your work and our partnership has made to my team.

Thanks so much…

KJ, Fortune 50 Bottling Industry

Typically our end of year celebrations at FINRA are a lunch where people say thanks for the good work or a happy hour or something like that – which although fun don’t really specifically acknowledge the individuals.

Because of you – both the practices you’ve shared and the specific examples you’ve given for what this could be – I’ve truly come to learn the following:

1)  Make the acknowledgement very specific so it truly can be heard and land for the person receiving it.    Pause to let the person really take it in, don’t rush past the experience of it.

2)  Acknowledgement matters tremendously.

3)  By design, when doing something of this scale to acknowledge three teams of people, an entire team requires design to be as impactful as possible.

What resulted was a 2 hour celebration that I say made a tremendous impact in thanking them for all they do day in and day out and who they are.    In my history of being in corporate america I have never experienced something like this before. Two separate people (my boss and one of my manager’s) welled up during it and were unable to speak.    I could hear Bob so clearly in my head “Let yourself be moved” so I didn’t rush to do anything except let everyone feel what they were feeling.

One of our team members works directly with our customer and I knew it was their opinion that would matter most to her.   So I reached out to the entire customer team and asked them to help me thank her and got a tremendous outpouring. Attached is what we presented to her in front of the entire customer team.   This mattered to her so much she shared it with her entire family and it’s now making its way throughout the related village in India and she used it as a way to thank her Mother In Law who has been instrumental in her life.

Knowing how much it means for our teams to hear directly from the customer we support we asked them if they would be willing to make little videos we could share with everyone in the celebration.    Not only did they do it, which has never been done before at our company, it became it’s own extravaganza and wonderful fun experience for one of my managers. We ended up with 8 videos including skits the customer put together.

Because we say how we work together matters, we had separate awards for each of the 3 teams.    For 3 of the team values we had the teams vote on who they thought most demonstrated the being of it.

I have a colleague and dear friend who I have been talking with for months to join our team.   I had tried many ways to describe how what we are creating together is different than what he was experiencing on his project and in other areas of the company.    A few weeks before this celebration he decided to join us on our team and he was at this celebration. At the end he came up to me and said you don’t have to try to explain it anymore, I just experienced how different this is.

Thank you !!   Kathy

 

Kathy Kidd, FINRA

“The impact of Upset is Optional has affected the office environment. The folks in this high paced, quick response group are very passionate and the idea that we can continue to be passionate as well as understanding that Upset is Optional is a new way for us. The environment has changed from that of them vs. us to a more colaborative one in which we see, now, being upset merely places more stumbling blocks in the way and gets us nowhere. This teaching has enabled us to hear fully what the other has to say, choose not to be upset and then move to a team solution.”

“For the first time in over 30 years I was able to be acknowledged and actually able to take the acknowledgement in. I had always pooh-pooh’ed the acknowledgement before and then thought to myself I was not acknowledged. I am now able to stop, listen to the thank you and take it in and I realize the thanks was there all along. It wasn’t that I wasn’t noticed or acknowledged before it was that I was the one tossing it away.”

NSA Participants

I just wanted to let you know that I have received repeated feedback about what great work you are doing with team…many team members report you are focused on great patient care, bring a positive spirit, communicate well and with equanimity (Osler would be proud).
Folks appreciate the extra effort you make to check in with them, give honest feedback, and solve problems.

Unsolicited Supervisor feedback to Duggan Method Client

When the very senior management values are different from the values of the team, it is very common to expect the middle management to push down the sr.managment values into the team.
But you have stood as a wall, willing to fight, resist, protect the team. A person who has strong leadership values, virtues can only do this. your actions reveal your values and leadership.

Hence I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Unsolicited Employee feedback to Duggan Method Client