#MINDFULMONDAY
“Genuine appreciation leads to repeated, rewarding Behaviour.”
Begin your Mondays with this beautiful ritual for the whole team. Get the team to huddle for 20 minutes at the start of the day. Place a chair in the middle. Now ask each one to take turns and sit on that chair for 60 seconds. Once that person sits in that chair, people in the team can take turns, based on how they feel towards this person, to come forward, place their hands on the person’s shoulder and say things in appreciation of that person.
Now notice how double magic happens. While the words that are spoken uplift the energy in the room and more specifically the person on the chair, the human touch on the shoulder seals that feeling by anchoring it deep. Touch has a deep way of creating communication that sticks. When the person on the chair is listening to words of appreciation, he or she also feels the vibe through the touch on the shoulder. This creates a very nice feeling of security and belongingness in the team. Once done, another person in the team may come forward and do the same.
After 60 seconds, the person on the chair vacates it and makes it available to another person on the team. We ran this exercise for the production and admin teams of The Giving Tree and the results were astounding.
There were surprises for the ones on the chair, a lot of appreciation in the air, and some very emotional shares after the exercise. People were charged up thereafter, and for the next few weeks, we could see lesser conflict on the work floor owing to this exercise. People we more compassionate, stopped to think before they criticised another member, came together as a team and were generally a lot more happier.
If you believe a happy workforce is an inspired workforce, then this simple exercise or ritual is a must try.
