If you look back on your working life, what memories stand out the most?
Chances are you’ll remember specific moments that have come to define how you feel about a particular role or organization. These moments are called ‘peak’ moments and happen throughout our working lives. They are also super powerful, so as leaders, managers, and team members, why don’t we make an effort to create more of them? Why do we miss so many opportunities to create meaningful moments that have such extraordinary impacts on others?
Our team recently finished reading The Power of Moments by brothers Chip and Dan Heath and all I can say is.. WOW, how inspirational! The Heath Brothers discuss how MOMENTS at work tend to arise from one of the following:
- Transitions– An employee’s first day at work, a promotion, the end of a project
- Milestones– Long service landmarks, retirement, the recognition of key achievements
- Pits– Employees facing bereavement, stress, or even a poor performance review
It is these MOMENTS that are a unique opportunity to transform the employee experience and build engagement, yet we often fail to take advantage of them. With a little effort, we can create powerful MOMENTS that linger long in our employees’ memories. The recipe for success, according to the Heath brothers, involves one or more of the following ‘ingredients’.
1. Moments of ELEVATION – These moments ‘break the script’ and are unexpected.
2. Moments of INSIGHT – These moments result in an “a-ha” moment for people.
3. Moments of PRIDE – These moments are where recognition is given, which is crucial.
4. Moments of CONNECTION – These moments bring colleagues and teammates together and deepen the relationship between them.
Our goal for this year as a company is to create MOMENTS for our team by developing an intentional strategy to help everyone feel connected to our strong company culture. We have been and will continue to utilize the Heath Brother’s approach and encourage you to do the same. Here is a recent example of how we’ve done this.
We created the ‘Blue Box’ strategy where every quarter our employees will be hand delivered a Blue Box full of our company’s branded SWAG. These items will be seasonal and will change every quarter. On each employee’s first day a Blue Box is delivered to them with a handwritten note signed by our corporate team letting them know how excited we are to have them. (ELEVATION) Our hope is that this will create a sense of belonging from the very beginning of their employment and may even cause them to have an “a-ha” moment. (INSIGHT) We recognize every employee’s birthday and we send them a gift card and note on their birthday letting them know how much we appreciate them and how valuable they are to our team. (PRIDE) We host employee parties twice a year and encourage everyone on our team to bring their spouses and children with them to the event. It is our hope that through this time together, our employees’ families will learn that they are also a part of our team. (CONNECTION)
I do not know what will work best to create MOMENTS for your employees, but I do know the importance of doing so. These moments will drive your employees to be more engaged, satisfied, and will hopefully lead them to be loyal to your organization for years to come. I challenge you to consider what this process of creating MOMENTS for your team looks like and work to implement them, very soon. I think you will be very pleased with the impact this has on your team!