Boost our team spirit with the Kudo Cards & Kudo Box
In my company, we are always working with someone else. That implies you request help from your colleagues or you directly help them every day! The question was: how to show to everybody how this collaboration / this team spirit is important and how to promote it?
The Kudo Cards & Kudo Box (https://management30.com/product/kudo-cards/) seems to be the right lever to answer these questions. This game is described by Jurgen Appelo in his book: "Managing for Happiness".
What are Kudo Cards?
It is a written and public recognition of a colleague for something he or she has contributed to the team. The important thing is that a Kudo is not just given from the top down, but peer-to-peer, across departments and organizations. Anyone can publicly recognize someone else’s work. It’s a way to break down hierarchical limitations and to encourage everyone to offer instant feedback.
What is the Kudo Box?
It is a box where you store the Kudo Cards. This box is opened regularly and the Kudo Cards are read out publicly and celebrated. Some companies create a Wall of Kudos, to proudly display their Kudos all the time.
Well, on my side, I have proposed to implement:
- The Kudo Cards, as described by Management 3.0.
- The Kudo Box, to keep the Kudo Cards until our team meeting (every Monday morning).
- The Kudo Wall, to display – proudly – our team spirit :)!
I’ve implemented this game since one and a half month now. I propose hereafter the outcomes of this game.
Launching
The Kudo Box & Kudo Cards are quite simple to launch. Definitely, the longest thing to do is to create the Kudo Box (and Kudo Wall in my case). After that, you only have to describe the rules to your team and watch what happens.
By the way, I’ve added a rule. The people who are writing a Kudo Card can associate a gift (with a limit of 5€). I think it could reinforce the importance of a Kudo Card compared to another.
First celebration meeting
Without surprise, when we’ve achieved our first team meeting and opened the Kudo Box, only 2 Kudo Cards were in. I guess most of the people look at how it will be done before trying themselves, so it’s ok.
Next celebration meetings
Step by step, the Kudo Box is more and more filled every week. That means the game has been well accepted by the team. I can say today that I’ve no more things to do (except write Kudo Card to thank my colleagues): everybody knows how to play with it.
Newcomers
An unexpected outcome was related to the newcomers. In fact, this game is a “curiosity” for them (as for the team at the beginning) in a positive manner. It contributes to provide a warm welcome to our newcomers.
Viral extension
External teams have seen our Kudo Wall and ask them what it is. After our explanations, they have wished to implement the same game within their own team. This game is viral! As Jurgen Appelo says in his book, this game could be deployed from one team to the company.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this game is simple to implement, has a great impact on the team, works by itself and encourages the curiosity of external teams or even your customers!
One last thing: the Kudo Box exists in digital format (https://kudobox.co/). Even if I prefer paper and visual brown papers, it’s a good solution to implement trans-locations Kudo Box.