Our last few posts looked at how the SkyTouch Alpha Games inspire and develop focused innovation in business. Now, take a look at how SkyTouch keeps an innovative spirit alive beyond the Alpha Games.
“They might be different sides to the same coin,” says Senior Director of IT Larry Gorman. “Where Alpha Games is helping to foster a culture of focused innovation, the Angry Birds are just recognizing people for breaking down barriers.”
The Angry Bird awards—actual stuffed imitations of the beaked characters from the mobile game—are given to employees who solve a problem or bridge a gap in the SkyTouch offices. It can be anything from interpersonal or departmental problems, to technical glitches and operational efficiencies. “If someone did something nice or learned something new,” says SkyTouch developer Vijay Deshmukh, “you can present it to the team, your colleagues.”
The only important thing is to keep the bar high. “There’s no definition as to what high means,” says Larry, “we just want to keep it high.” To track the level of accomplishment, SkyTouch snaps a photo of each recipient holding their bird to display on their Angry Birds wall and notes what barrier they were recognized for breaking down.
“That’s where the connection to the actual Angry Bird itself comes from,” Larry explains. “If you’ve played that game, the purpose of the bird is to knock down barriers and get to that pig, so the analogy would be that the pig represents something you’re trying to solve, a difficult problem you need to get to, or a particular goal you need to achieve, and there are various things getting in the way of you achieving that goal. So it’s really a recognition of something that somebody did to get through that barrier to achieve the goal at hand, and it makes the company a little more fun, a little more relaxed, and less formal, too.”
Larry notes that recognition programs at other businesses can be tedious, “because a lot of the processes that companies put in place to reward people sometimes have a lot of bureaucracy associated with it, and it kind of becomes a drag to submit somebody for an award: you’ve got to fill out all the paperwork, a get through all sorts of criteria, budget money for it. But with the Angry Birds, it’s just as simple as two people agreeing that somebody deserves it.”
“It’s just kind of fun,” he goes on. “In some ways it encourages people to do it. In other ways, it’s just to say, ‘Hey, this person did something nice, and it’s worth honoring her, worth acknowledging it.’ It’s just one angle into the culture that says SkyTouch is a nice place to work.”
Angry Birds are just one SkyTouch strategy for fostering appreciation and recognition of employee contributions in our office. We also always have cake on birthdays. Now we want to know: how does you company award its employees to keep both the bar and their spirits high? Comment here to start the discussion.
