As the CEO, I’m on most of the company’s email groups for better or worse. Sometimes I get the mundane… announcements of lost car keys, etc. However I keep an eye on one kinda mundane email usually entitled “Cakes!”
This is the email “shout out” in our UK office that pastries are available for all. Something or someone is being celebrated. Interestingly, the “morale” score in the UK has climbed with the frequency of the “CAKES!” emails. Why? I don’t know the exact science or statistical significance but I do know that celebration and generosity of spirit impact company morale in very positive ways. The more celebrations and hoopla the better.
My dad, now recently passed on, was in palliative care for about four months. On one of my last days on the floor with my dad I brought in two dozen donuts and thanked the nursing staff for their on-going, loving care. These health practitioners want two-dozen carbohydrate loaded “sugar bombs” as much as a flat tire. But they cheered and were grateful. The bigger issue relates to the acknowledgment, thank you, and respect that comes from thinking of others and in sharing. It is not the donut but the thought in the middle. It sounds silly and maybe even trite; its not.
Cakes! Donuts! …a little fuel for respect.
Bring some in today!
with Character,
Lorne