So, you’ve decided to start your own Awesomeness group at your workplace?
Congratulations!! You will love it. In my experience, it is one of the best tools you can use to build a great work culture of appreciation and recognition. Not only that, but it’s super easy and fun to implement, while still delivering great results.
If you’re still in the implementation stage but you’re not sure where to go from here, follow these 8 simple steps to follow to create your own Awesomeness group in less than 24 hours!
Curious about what the Awesomeness group is all about? Click here.
1. Identify The Facilitators
You cannot run the Awesomeness group on your own, especially if you are leading the company or are the head of a department.
Rather than try it alone, designate one or two other people as the facilitators for the group. A person who is lively and connects well with their coworkers is always a good choice.
Your facilitators’ main work will be to keep the group buzzing and encourage people to post, as well as oversee the weekly Spin the Wheel activity (more on this later). If this work becomes too much for your group size or the number of activities you hold, you can always designate more facilitators.
Just keep in mind that these facilitators should change out monthly or quarterly (depending on the structure and needs of your organization). Motivation and inspiration are not an endless ocean. They are a small pond. You need to keep refilling the pond or it will dry out.
With your facilitators at your side, you can proceed to step 2.
2. Create The Group
Where you create the group does not matter. It can be Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, or even an internal platform. What matters is that everyone – across all departments and all positions – is in a single group (or at least as many as you can manage in one space).
3. Share With Everyone
Spread the word throughout the company about this new initiative and why you are starting an Awesomeness group. Do this over a short call, so you can save all your energy for the implementation process and make sure the experience of participating in the Awesomeness group is as optimized as possible.
I have seen it repeatedly: when we launch something with a lot of planning and a lot of elaborate presentations, talks, and processes, it consumes so much of our energy that we experience a dull period post-launch.
This dull period will kill your Awesomeness group, so make sure you avoid it at all costs. Save up all your time and efforts for implementation and running the group, not pre-launch activities, and cut your sharing time down to a minimum.
4. Start Using The Group
After launching it with everyone in the company, it’s time to officially start using your Awesomeness group to appreciate people daily.
You must be specific on why you are appreciating other people in the group. As many people as possible should do this daily or at least every alternate day.
Consistency is key to training yourself to give specific feedback. You may say, “I can’t see anything specific that’s worth appreciating every single day.” But this is where the magic happens, for consistency will force you to look deeper.
Eventually, everyone will learn how to bring out the best in themselves and those around them, even from obscurity. It will be like changing their prescription lenses to one that fits them better, so they can see more clearly than ever before.
Here are some examples of specific appreciation vs generic appreciation, which you can share with your facilitators.
In the beginning, it will not be easy to get people to change how they word their feedback. That’s why it’s important to lead by example and be consistent over the weeks and months to come. Keep at it, and eventually you’ll see the change happen.
5. Keep The Momentum Going
Running and participating in the Awesomeness group is a habit that will not come naturally (read about the challenging start that our own Awesomeness group had here). In the beginning, it will feel like only a few people are driving it and not everyone is participating, but don’t be disheartened. You have no idea how good the expressions of appreciation that are shared are making people feel.
We are all grown-ups, so we may not put it in words so much that we feel good when someone thanks us. We may brush it off by saying, “It doesn’t matter because I will do my best anyway.” But deep down, everyone looks for appreciation and validation. The more we give it to them, the happier they are and the more empowered they are to perform well at work.
To keep the momentum going, call out people who they appreciate their fellow employees and thank them. You can even message people privately to express your appreciation of them for the great things they’re saying and doing.
Your facilitators can carry these tasks out, as well as help you brainstorm other ways to keep the positive words flowing among your coworkers..
6. Appreciate Across Levels
Encourage appreciation across all levels of the company, top-down and vice versa. Your encouragement is necessary because some team members tend to hesitate before appreciating their managers, or before saying anything to anyone in a large group of people where all their coworkers are present.
Participation is important. But, if for any reason you have to make different groups, my recommendation is not to make a group for each department or for certain positions.
Choose your members from a random selection of people, so that you allow everyone to see what their coworkers in other departments are doing. This cross pollination is important because appreciation should not flow only from the top down. It’s not like a unidirectional river. The currents should flow in all directions and through all levels.
7 .Build The Fun And Excitement Weekly
This is a small but fun part of the Awesomeness group that adds a level of excitement. Every week, put all the names of the people who were appreciated by others on a list. Then, use an online software to randomly select a winner from that list.
I recommend using a spin wheel interface, as it just adds a bit more fun and makes it seem more like participating in a game show. There are many free online versions of this type of software, but they all work the same way. Pick any that you like; I enjoy this one because it’s easy to use.
To use the spin wheel, copy and paste the names from your list to the online page. No matter how long your list is, a wheel will be generated. Click your mouse to spin the wheel, and it will randomly choose a name which will be your winner for the week. (Remember, if a person is appreciated more than once, put their name on the wheel that many more times.)
Share a video of the spin wheel or the photo of the winner in the Awesomeness group, so that everyone can congratulate them and celebrate their victory.
Go through this process every Monday morning, or whichever day is the first day of the work week.
If you have a large Awesomeness group, you can always have more than one winner. For example, on some weeks we hold a second spin wheel for people who gave appreciation, in addition to the first one for those who received appreciation. Sometimes, in my company, if there are too many names on the list, I do two spins – one for the factory people and one for the office people.
8. Award The Winner And Share Their Moment
The winner needs to win something. I recommend you decide on a small token amount which they can spend to buy anything online or on a website like Amazon. Typically, Rs. 500 is a good amount; not too much, but not too little. They can select what they like from the online store and tell the facilitator, who will buy on their behalf and get it shipped directly to the winner’s doorstep.
When the winner receives their gift, ask them to take a photo of themselves with it and share it with the Awesomeness group. This way, everyone else can congratulate them and celebrate their happiness together.
Read number 10 in “10 Mistakes You Should Avoid for Your Awesomeness Group.” It talks about why sharing photos is important.
Conclusion
If you follow the 8 steps I laid out in this article, you’ll have your Awesomeness group up and running in a day or less. It may take a few weeks or months for you to get the hang of running it. But knowing what challenges you’ll face and how to solve them, as well as how to avoid expensive mistakes, will help you along the way.
To learn that valuable information, follow the links below.
