Recognition for Team Contribution, Regardless of Role
Whilst the majority of Acorn’s work is with individuals and teams at the forefront of an organisation’s activities, we were recently included in an internal communication piece which demonstrated a company’s culture of collaboration and enhanced teamwork cascading through the business.
The client on this particular occasion was NIS (https://nisltd.com/), the advanced engineering company who bespoke design and manufacture of plant and equipment across a wide range of markets.
Acorn’s involvement over recent years has focused on NIS’ involvement in the Sellafield SRP project, being delivered as part of the site’s Programme and Project Partners (PPP) model.
The focus for our work has been with the leaders and key players, improving collaboration internally and with other multi-disciplinary partners involved in joint ventures and multi-disciplinary projects.
NIS recently published the results of an internal awards initiative where they asked personnel (and stakeholders) to nominate employees within NIS who they feel have made a significant contribution to the business.
Acorn’s Keith Longney: “What really struck a chord was that the award for the person who brought positivity to the company was a member of the cleaning team.”
“This isn’t to say that this person hadn’t been a positive employee in the past, or that there had been some sea change in their personality.”
“I believe that the wider culture had changed; people could see and recognise the importance of this individual’s contribution to the organisation, to their own time in the workplace, and that they were part of the team.”
The senior leadership team were the instigators for the awards and creating the five categories: “It was interesting to see that – completely unprovoked or unsolicited – a number of the leadership team were themselves nominated.”
“It was clear that NIS’s leaders were demonstrating and helping cascade the collaborative culture through the organisation, a culture that now feels established and embedded. Through their behaviour, these leaders are now also ambassadors for the organisation’s culture.”
“This is tangible acknowledgment that everyone (Team Members) can contribute to collective successes and achievements, regardless of their day-to-day role.”
“This is internal collaboration being demonstrated, where awareness of each other’s contribution is raised and everyone in the organisation benefits as a result of each other’s actions and activities.”
Team Members
In Acorn’s Five Dimensions of Teams Model the Team Members element includes:
- Collective, committed input and responsibility for the team and its development.
- Awareness and acceptance of other’s values and diversity.
- Emotional awareness of one’s self and of others.
- And the ability to demonstrate appreciation, empathy and respect.
In the above instance, the employees of NIS have recognised the contribution of their colleague regardless of perceived status or stature within the organisation.
The impact of this leads to maintaining and emboldening of the integrity and unity of the team and the organisation.
One could even argue that the award-winning individual has themself exhibited elements of leadership, namely that of creating the conditions for wider team success.
Image credit: Photo by ThisIsEngineering / Pexels.com