100+ Coworkers Later: 3 Key Habits of the Happiest Teams (Part 3)

As a travel optometrist, I’ve had the privilege of working in 5 provinces, at 20 different offices, with over 100 Coworkers.

Among the happiest (and strongest) teams, I noticed 3 key habits that consistently showed up.

(Check out part 1 and part 2 here)

Habit #3: Acknowledge Each Other

To explain the third and final key habit of the happiest teams, here's a scenario:

Imagine that you repaired a nose piece for a customer. When you give it to the customer, they do one of three things:

A: They say, "Uh-huh."
B: They say nothing.
C: They throw the glasses and step on them.

How motivated would you be to help that person again in each of these cases?

This is based on a real research by Dan Ariely, but instead of glasses, research participants handed in their work, and researcher either said “uh-huh”, said nothing, or put their work right into the shredder.

Unsurprisingly, the people whose work was acknowledged kept going the longest, and the people whose work was destroyed stopped much sooner.

But what’s fascinating is that people who didn’t get acknowledged stopped around the same time as people whose work got destroyed.

It seems counterintuitive, but no acknowledgement was just as bad as de-valuing their work.

The lesson is simple: people want their effort to matter.

Even a small acknowledgment can boost motivation, while an absence of acknowledgment can quickly drain it.

We can’t control how our patients acknowledge our work. But the happiest teams consistently acknowledge each other for their efforts.

Small Acknowledgements, Happy Teams

The happiest (and the strongest) teams I've seen consistently acknowledge each other:

• They acknowledge efforts, not just results.
• They celebrate small wins.
• They give specific thank-yous.

Key Habits

What I've learned from working with so many teams is that we as individuals have the power to create a happy workplace.

Whether it's finding small moments of play, focusing on education, or acknowledging our coworkers, these small actions compound to help us create a workplace we truly love showing up to.