No follow up on that challenge? 🥲

Our team is fully remote with people spread across different locations in two countries so we’ve made it a point to focus on a connected culture for ourselves. As part of that, we have a few ways we celebrate wins and each other:

1. The Ta-Da List: In Miro, we document professional & personal wins for both individuals and the team across a timeline. Each post includes a description and images (if available). These posts can include: launches, big presentations, events, thought leadership activities, volunteering, team activities, etc. It’s our scrapbook to look back at each quarter, and at the end of each year, to see all the amazing things we’ve accomplished and moments we’ve had together. It only takes a few minutes at the time to capture, but it’s so cool to see the compilation in the end! (It’s also really helpful to trigger memories when it comes time for QBRs )

   

    

2. Circle of Gratitude: At the start of our team meeting each week, we open the floor for team members to share kudos/celebrations/congrats/thank yous:
   • Kudos for Others: Calling out those who have been a supportive village around us -- from our team or another. Whether they’re on the call or not, we recognize them. If the person being recognized is on a different team, I sometimes capture the feedback and send it to them & their manager afterward or the team member sends them a Connected Recognition award (see below).
   • Kudos for Ourselves: We take a moment to brag about a professional or personal win of our own -- no matter how big or small. It helps us practice being vulnerable and get more comfortable speaking about our own achievements.
3. Connected Recognition: Our company offers a program for us to award peers with monetary and non-monetary awards. 
4. Monthly Org Culture Magazine: Our broader group publishes a monthly magazine that includes a Legend Board where we can include recognition for peers for everyone to see.

In my case, I always dedicate a section of my retrospectives to celebrate, thank and appreciate your colleagues or team. 🥰

It's something I consider very necessary to create a culture of teamwork.

And of course applaud each and every stickie that is added in that section!

I want to add that the other day the 'Scrum Masters of the Universe' community started a challenge on the 'Appreciative Inquire' —> AI technique to give a twist to the way of doing retrospectives, more focused on the positive, I leave you the Template I prepared https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?miroversePath=%2Fai-retrospective-template%2F

As cool points:

• The retro can be adapted for Light Mode or Dark Mode. 🤍

• All sections are based on group activities.

• The common thread is space.

Finally I want to celebrate being part of this Community!!!!

Almost weekend!!!

Celebrate Wins and Spread Joy with FriYAY Shoutouts!

At our company, we believe in the power of celebrating wins to boost motivation and appreciation. Every Friday, we ignite our corporate-wide Slack channel with FriYAY Shoutouts, thanks to our trusty Slackbot! This bot joyfully reminds everyone that it’s FriYAY with a spirited message:

“ Reminder: It's FriYAY! Let's look back on the week:
• Who deserves a shoutout - and why?
• What are you celebrating? ”

The channel lights up with an outpouring of positivity as team members from all corners of the company share their shoutouts. It's a weekly tradition that brings us together, even when we're miles apart. We celebrate everything from small victories to major accomplishments, making sure every win gets its moment in the spotlight.

The energy and excitement that fill the channel is contagious, creating a wave of encouragement and recognition that fuels our collective spirit. So, if you're looking for a way to boost morale and foster a culture of appreciation in a remote environment, give FriYAY Shoutouts a try! Let's keep the good vibes rolling and celebrate each other's successes!

I know that’s not very Miro like - but imagine a reminder to post stickies of wins for the week as part of the message from the Slackbot. A FriYAY Wins board could be set up in a way that makes it encouraging to capture wins for each week of the year, making it easy to review all the stickies and see the wins for the year!! 

We have a rolling recognition board in Miro. The goals are:

1. Recognize colleagues for their good and meaningful work/collaboration/partnership/contribution
2. Shout Outs of Recognition shared in our Monthly team meetings
3. Leadership team will use this board as a way to inform reward point recognition when appropriate
4. Tool for reflection for individual growth

Each month has a different colored sticky note with the same template which includes:

• Name of the person being recognized
• Project name
• Competency or company value being demonstrated
• Details
• Who is writing the note

The recognition is given asynchronously and can be done at any time, but we send reminders before each monthly meeting. At the monthly meeting a highlight is shown for the team to see overall what is being highlighted. 

As the year progresses, you can see each team member space fill up with a rainbow of recognition. It’s especially nice to see at the end of the year as we’re running out of space :)

A Slack channel just for shout outs is super sweet and rewarding, @Val Ward. Plus I like the use of shout-out Stickies. 

Hi @Johannes Knipfer  -- this is a great way to incorporate a 360 approach to celebration and recognition, really cool and thoughtful! 

Love this idea @Rasheed Raya  - I like combining celebration with fun and rewards.

Hi @Yehor Kachanov  -- A Kudo Board! What a great idea! I like that the team gets involved in delivering praise so that it’s not all top-down. 

We’ve done it in a few different ways...

1. We have a dedicated Slack channel that we use in the moment to give shout outs to people that go above and beyond.
2. At the end of every all hands meeting we try to save some time to have an open forum to give shout outs to people who are aligned to our company values and
3. We’ve had Miro boards in the past with stickies centered around everyones names. Folks can go in and give kudos to anyone and everyone that they want. 

Love hearing everyone’s ideas!

For our fully remote team we have three different ways of celebrating success:

1. Kudo Wall: In our Teams Channel we have a channel dedicated just for Kudo’s. So you can easily give praise to others, be it team members or colleagues, in a tribe wide channel and making the success visible for all.
2. Appraisal Shower: We regularly come together as a team to give each other praise. (e.g. “Who helped you out the most this week and why?” ; “What did you learn the last month?”) 
3. Gathering Feedback from Customers: As an Agile Master I gather the Feedback from our customers through different channels and will surprise my teammates with the collected Feedback on our Miro Board (usually every 2-5months)

I always try think about fun and engaging ways to enable celebration or recognition culture in the remote setup.

And, what I can highly recommend from my experience being in remote environment for 5 years is HeyTaco by combining it with Slack, it can create a great combination of being fun and competition .

We even managed to connect some rewards and prizes for the winners .

Give it a try 

In our workplace, we celebrate wins and give shoutouts to our team through a Kudo Board. Before each all-hands meeting, team members fill out the Kudo Board with their acknowledgments and praise. During the meeting, our leadership team highlights these kudos.

What I particularly love about this approach is that we have two categories for nominations: "Solo Heroes" and "Teams." This not only recognizes individual contributions but also emphasizes the importance of teamwork and collaboration. It helps foster a culture where working together is just as valued as individual accomplishments.

Hi @ruicouto 

“It depends” are truly the most influential word in business, for sure! Definitely appreciate your take and your examples on this. 

As a product designer, I will answer with the answer I often give, yet I hate to receive...which is “it depends!” 

First of all, it depends on the type of win/team/people, then it also depends on the kind of win:

• If I’m celebrating a UX win, the most common way is to share in the bigger UX group slack channel. This allows me to give visibility to my people in a bigger scope.
• ‍♂️ If I’m celebrating a win as a team/individual, I resort to a retrospective/team building moment to give kudos, celebrate and also I often create a “kudos” section so that people can also express their feeligns
• For bigger wins, I brag all the way in bigger forum, where different roles can see how cool we are

Aww, @Petra Ivanigova -- this sounds like a super cool and fun idea! Let us know how it goes!

We're excited to start fun, monthly virtual award ceremonies using Miro boards to celebrate our awesome team members! We'll send digital certificates or gift cards to the winners. Plus, we're setting up a colorful Miro 'Shoutout Wall' where everyone can post notes to recognize each other's achievements. It's a great way to show appreciation and build a positive team spirit 

Bubble tea sounds amazing! Totally agree -- sometimes a small shared moment with the team can do a lot to build and maintain group morale. Thanks for sharing, @Camille Chen! 

My favorite way to celebrate a big win is with a traditional touch that everyone looks forward to! After a significant achievement, we gather on a Friday afternoon to toast with champagne in the office. It’s a special way to commemorate our hard work and success together. Then, we cap off the celebration with a dinner where we can relax, share laughs, and discuss our win in a laid-back setting.

For smaller victories, we keep the spirit up with something uniquely local—bubble milk tea, a favorite here in Taiwan. We order these cool, chewy drinks on Friday afternoons, turning them into a refreshing tradition that marks the end of a successful week.

Hi! All is well. I really appreciate the effort that you put into building our community. Be well. 

It’s so important to celebrate the wins! My team has a daily check-in call, and on Fridays we use the time to celebrate wins big and small from the past week. It can be a personal win (learned a new skill) or business win (great feedback on a deliverable), but it gives us a chance to virtually high-five and cheer each other on, and end the week on a positive high-note.

We have a formal recognition platform at work, but I've been relying on good ol' Cousin Ed to help me spread the appreciation around these days! I even let him move into my saved files

Hi-fives through the screen is a good start and we’re happy to help you add more creative ideas to your roster @Tatsuro Ueda 

Anyone have ideas on how we can help @Tatsuro Ueda take virtual high-fives to the next level??

We were only able to high-five through the screen, so this thread is super helpful (I'm also interested in other threads with techniques and skills for remote work). Thank you to @Manouska J and everyone who posted

Whoa! I love the visual representation of Lego blocks to show how people are building upon the pillars. So happy you were able to share, John and hope you’ve been well