Recognize This! – People are watching. Recognize what you want to see emulated in others.
Yesterday, news broke that the leaders of Facebook, Google, Apple and DST Global have joined together to do something unprecedented in the world of medicine – and in recognition.
Sergey Brin, founder of Google, and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, founder of 23andMe, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, and Yuri Milner, founder of Mail.ru and DST Global, gave $33 million dollars to recognize 11 scientists with a $3 million prize each for their breakthrough discoveries and contributions to science.
This goal of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is “recognizing excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life.” A lofty, but worthy, goal indeed.
The recognition of the prize itself for these 11 scientists is undeniably worthwhile
The chairman of the board of the foundation behind the Breakthrough Prize is Art Levinson, who is also chairman of the board of Apple and Genentech. His comments on the Prize: “I believe this new prize will shine a light on the extraordinary achievements of the outstanding minds in the field of life sciences, enhance medical innovation, and ultimately become a platform for recognizing future discoveries.”
That’s the knock-on effect of recognition done right.
When people see excellence recognized, they are encouraged and inspired to continue their efforts along the same vein. I imagine the path to discovery for all of these Breakthrough Scientists was fraught with failure and slow progress. But all of them stuck with it and achieved great discoveries that will benefit all mankind. Any scientist pursuing similar research to cure the incurable likely experience the same frustrations and need the encouragement and inspiration to keep going.
That’s why the same group of founding sponsors has committed an additional $15 million in prize money going forward, recognizing five Breakthrough Scientists each year with $3 million. Indeed, the press release about the prize explains:
Lessons for Employee Recognition in the Workplace
Sure, giving deserving employees in our organization millions of dollars from your own pocket is not possible. But there are several lessons to be learned from the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the workplace, especially if your organization is willing to commit relevant budget (at least 1% of payroll) to strategic, social recognition.
1) People are watching. To get the most from the knock-on effect of recognition, understand that people are constantly watching and noticing what gets recognized and rewarded in an organization. They will emulate those behaviors and achievements, so be sure you are recognizing and rewarding what you want to see more often.
2) Great achievements can come from anywhere, but no single person or small selection committee can see it all. It’s critical to empower all employees to notice and appreciate the excellence happening around them every day. Those in the trenches are the ones most likely to know who deserves recognition. Let them “catch someone doing something good.”
3) Team recognition for team efforts is critical. Programs like “employee of the month” and employee of the year” – when they are the only or primary forms of recognition – are more of a detriment and hindrance to recognition than a help. If people work together to achieve greatness, then recognize all of the people involved.
4) Excellent people repeat excellence and deserve repeated recognition. Never fall into the trap of “Tom got recognized last month, so we can’t recognize him this month for exceeding customer expectations and salvaging a critical client for the company.” If someone does something deserving of recognition, recognize them! Strategic recognition is frequent, timely and very specific.
Do you see the knock-on effect of recognition in your organization?
