Acknowledgement Moments
People in Corporate world experience off-sites quite frequently, where people come from all over the country, assemble at a resort, and then learning and fun goes hand-in-hands, rejuvenating all the participants in the process.
In one of such off-sites I attended , the Master Trainer, asked all attendees to sit with different persons in the training session, every day, and also instructed attendees to have all their meals in Cafeteria, with different persons, so that we get to know each other better and also we are able to interact on different topics when the group of people you sit with changes.
Attendees also were put through various group exercises, and all groups had to present their respective cases. There were role-plays too where almost every attendee had some role/interaction with the group members and to limited extent with audience too. There were also lot of indoor and outdoor team building exercises.
By the end of off-site period, every attendees fairly well knew other attendees and the bonhomie among the participants was great.
On the penultimate day of conclusion of off-site, the Master Trainer asked all attendees to write some quality of every other attendees they observed, a one-liner preferably, on a slip of paper, without mentioning their names on it, and then drop that 'slip of paper' in the box marked in the name of every attendee kept on the dais. These boxes were then handed over to individual attendees to pick up such 'slips' deposited by other attendees.
That day gets concluded with a broad grin on all faces, as people start reading comments they got from other attendees, and that hour becomes the noisiest. I am sure each one of us would have read it couple of times that day, and many times thereafter too.
Who doesn’t want to be known as a valuable person and be admired in one way or the other in the group you belong to? For me, no matter howsoever reserve person I might have been, but any kind of appreciation you get from your peers is like a dose of nectar, which increases the yearn to live more usefully and fuels the desire to live life like king size. I am sure that everyone feels delighted to be counted valuable and useful among the people one lives with.
Now these 30 odd slips we carried home became 'a go to document' whenever we experience turbulent times, to reassure ourselves that we have a significant value, and that helps us keep going in those times.
It's a decade now since I retired, but yet i do flip through these slips on and off.
I call these moments as 'Acknowledgement moments'.
In all our relationships, we experience such moments once in a while, where the initiative taken by others, be that parents, siblings, friends or colleagues is completely out of box, and springs unexpected surprises and joys for you and may be in some cases for everyone in the family..
Recollecting such moments of recognition, sweet gestures of cooperation, encouragement and motivation we received, and sharing them with concerning persons makes you feel gracious, and makes other persons feel happy for being remembered for their contributions.
While I was writing this piece of blog, I , unexpectedly received a call today from a friend in Chennai, who was a part of our Bank's CDR Team, almost after a gap of 12 years. She just called me as she read a word CDR in some of the documents she was processing, chose to call me, and was recollecting all the good work we did with Chennai Team.
She made my day. I now have a responsibility to call at least 2 people whom I had admired, and who contributed in shaping me up to successfully manage Bank's CDR portfolio.
In our family and friend circle, we call such moments as TJN moments. TJN stands for 'Twada Jawab Nahi', means, 'There is no one like You', means acknowledging constructive contribution of a family/friend in helping out. Reiterating thankfulness and gratitude to the doer.
I believe each one of us need, sometime to go down the memory lane, recollect and then share such TJN moments created in our life by others, with parents especially, with our siblings, and with our sons/daughters too. We should also recollect such moments created by our colleagues, neighbors, mentors and with one-off acquaintances too, and try encashing any such opportunity to pass on our appreciation to others.
Call someone today. Send a message or flowers to those whom you value.
Be a reason to make someone smile. Be a reason to light up some face today.