Some award programs are just a huge cost to an organization. Others are an investment that actually makes the culture better.
So let’s talk about three unique award ideas I think are phenomenal at building and maintaining culture. The first comes from an architectural firm, the second from an Irish pub outside Disney World, and the third from a brand I’m guessing you’ve used at one point in your life.
First, What Role Do Awards Play?
Before I jump into the examples, let’s talk about the role awards “should” play in our recognition strategy. If you’ve read any of my other articles, seen my videos on YouTube, or been on my newsletter, you know that I spend the majority of my time focusing on the day-to-day actions that ensure that people feel appreciated and valued every day.
Although I don’t spend a lot of time talking about awards, when done right, they play an important role in showing people the actions, attitudes, and values that matter most to our success. Awards, when done right, give senior leaders and managers an opportunity to be able to spotlight and talk about people who are consistently living the values that matter most to our success. They give us the opportunity to celebrate them publicly and to be able to show others the things that matter most at our organization.
So with each example, I’ll share why I think it’s great, and what we can bring back to take our own programs to the next level.
(Do you want to help your leaders get better at doing the little things every day that actually have people feel seen, heard, and valued? Check out my programs here.)
1. The Research Award at Damon Farber Landscape Architects
The first example comes from Damon Farber Landscape Architects, whose values are curiosity, collaboration, and caring.
So it’s perfect that one of their awards, a personal development award, lets employees apply, and only four people a year get it, to go do research on a landscape architecture site somewhere in the world. Past winners have gone to places like San Francisco, Savannah, and New Orleans.
And here’s the thing. If you get it, you get three additional days of PTO and a travel stipend. Your job is to go do the research, and then within 30 days, come back and share your methodology, your goals, your visuals, and what you learned that can be applied at work.
Why is this so perfect? Well, what’s their first value? Curiosity. And their second? Collaboration.
The award shows people that what we value is taking ownership of your own learning. Going out to explore something that makes you better, expands your views, and helps us be more creative in supporting our clients and each other. And then bringing it back so all of us grow.
How perfect is that?
And here’s the best part. Only four people a year get it, so if this is a US company, that stipend might be $2,000 or $3,000 plus three PTO days. That’s not a huge investment for that kind of return. And when people see someone else win it, they want to do more of the behaviors that earned it, so they can get that opportunity next year.
Follow-up action:
What is an experiential award that you could create at your organization that would help people take ownership of their own learning and development, a knowledge that would help lift everybody up, and be something that others would be excited to apply for in the future?
2. Memorializing People at Raglan Road Irish Pub
The next example comes from Raglan Road Irish Pub, in Disney Springs right outside Orlando.
I was down there speaking at a conference, and I’m walking through when all of a sudden I hear Irish music. I walk in, and there are Irish dancers up on the tables in an authentic Irish pub. I found out later that they built it in Ireland, shipped it over, and reconstructed it.
As I’m leaned against the wall sipping my pint, I look next to me. One of the plaques says a lead dancer was here for four years, with her picture inside Raglan Road. I look over, and there’s another one for 10 years, naming their dance troupe leader.
What blew me away is that these dancers came here from Ireland, dancing three to seven nights a week, and stayed for up to 10, even 14 years. How extraordinary is that?
But what really stood out was that these plaques memorialized people who had worked there and left, showing that you’re part of the family even after you go.
Because so often we have a retirement party, and that’s it. Yet we’ve given so much of our life, our knowledge, and our expertise to that company.
Follow-up action:
What could you do to memorialize the role employees played after they leave? Some things I’ve seen: a door people sign on their way out, a brick added to a wall, a photo on a wall of legends up front along with their biggest tips, or a video that gets saved and shown to new hires. Several months back, I did a talk at NASA. It was organized by a former head of the department who’s now retired, who mentors younger employees, runs a speaker series, and comes in and just meets with people to be able to stay involved and keep contributing to an organization that they loved.
3. The Learning Moments Award at WD-40
The last example comes from WD-40. I had the privilege of interviewing former CEO Garry Ridge a couple of months ago, and it blew my mind. This is one of my all-time favorite examples.
In case you didn’t know, WD-40 is WD-40 because there were 39 failed attempts before the 40th formula finally worked. And WD-40 has some of the highest engagement scores I’ve ever seen, up in the high 90s, with something like a 97% completion rate on their engagement survey. That’s unheard of.
Garry told me his goal was to create a learning environment. He said, “There’s no such thing as failures. There’s only learning moments.”
When he realized people weren’t sharing when things didn’t work out, he wanted to change that, because the only way we grow is to make sure people are learning every day. So he launched an award program.
Every month, he asked everyone to email him a mistake they made, something they tried that didn’t work, and what they learned from it. Each month, they’d select one winner and feature that person in the all-staff session. And at the end of the year, they’d pick the best learning moment, and that person would get an expense-paid, first-class trip around the world with a loved one, visiting all of WD-40’s manufacturing locations to share their learning moment and learn from people along the way.
And here’s the part I love. Garry said, “I know as CEO that people are not going to be sending me the mistakes that they made.” The first month, he got four. So he lifted those people up. He talked about their learning moments in the town halls, thanked them for sharing, and made them heroes.
The next month? Twenty to forty. And each month it grew, until he was getting hundreds.
Why is this one of my all-time favorites? Because Garry understood the role recognition plays in creating reinforcement loops. You can’t just say, “I want a learning culture,” and expect the work is done. Asking for the behavior change is only the start. The reinforcement, talking about it, making people heroes, awarding one person a month, is what shows people that leadership actually wants to hear their mistakes.
And then people bring them in and share what they’re learning, until everyone is using the language of learning moments and it’s baked into the culture.
(If recognition as a whole is something you’re rethinking, you might also like How Managers Can Improve Employee Engagement with the Feedback Process, where I get into how recognition creates the reinforcement loops that shape behavior.)
Follow-up action:
What behavior, action, or attitude, if embedded in your culture, would make the biggest difference? Maybe it’s people speaking up like Garry above, or maybe it’s how we show up for each other or for customers. Share this article with a couple of senior leaders in your organization and consider creating an informal award that focuses on one behavior for six months to a year. Make the people who live and breathe it the heroes of our organization so everybody knows consistently that this behavior is at the heart of everything we do.
Your Turn
What was your favorite award I shared today, and what’s one thing you can take back to bring your culture, and your award program, to the next level?
If there are unique awards you’ve seen, I’d love to hear about them. Send me an email, and I may feature them in a future piece.
And if you’d like more practical ideas like this every week, subscribe to The Nudge by scrolling down below. It’s one small, useful idea for building a culture of appreciation, delivered to your inbox each week.
Then, when you’re ready to help your leaders build this kind of culture and create the reinforcement loops on their teams, take a look at my interactive programs, or just reach out to me at beyondthankyou.com.
