What is appreciation?

When you tell someone you value his or her specific contribution, you are showing appreciation. Suppose you had asked someone for some thoughts on a current situation. You say, “Thank you for your excellent note. It was short, you did it very promptly, and it answered all my questions.”

Why give appreciation?

• It makes people feel good and increases their energy and commitment.
• It rewards and encourages the behaviour you want.
• It encourages people to pay attention to and magnify what already works well.
• If you take the lead, it quickly spreads and increases cooperation and teamwork.
• It is good to give and costs nothing.
• If you give it, you will eventually get some for yourself.

Use appreciation

Informally

• Appreciate people doing things right. This can be as simple as saying, “I love how you listen to junior staff”.
• Appreciate people making a special effort. “Thanks for staying over to get that proposal off last night. You had to do it in a rush, but it still looked very professional, as always.”
• Appreciate people for trying. Someone might give you an idea that looks impractical. You could say, “Thank you. Your ideas are always interesting. Do you have any thoughts on the first steps?”
• Appreciate your boss. They are human and will respond positively. You could say, “I appreciate your supporting my position at the project planning meeting.”

At meetings

• When you have an excellent meeting, discuss why it went so well.
• Say what you valued about each other’s contribution to the success of an extended meeting or project.
• After every meeting, ask participants for their thoughts on what went right and why. You can then use these thoughts to make every meeting go as well.

For organisation development

• Appreciative Inquiry is a way to catalyse change based on appreciation. You find out what already works well and help people build on this. For example, if you want to improve customer care, you can find examples of this already going well in your organisation. Here is an example from my practice. Then, you help people create a shared vision and action plan.

When to use appreciation?

• When you genuinely value what someone else has done or who they are is.
• When someone who works for you or a colleague has done good work.
• When you are in a meeting, especially one that is going well.
• When a project has been successful.
• When you want to create a positive cultural change.