The Order of the Elephant

Got my email newsletter today from Kaizen Training in which Kimberley Hare extols the use of happiness as a driver for performance.  If you want to know more, email me and I’ll forward it to you.  As ever with Kimberley she’s up there with new research and case studies to support her stories.

 

What piqued my interest though was mention of a Danish car firm using the “Order of the Elephant” as an instant reward for positive customer involvement.  I just had to go and look and, sure enough, Wikipedia has a whole entry around the “proper” Danish Order of the Elephant, an ancient and revered distinction dating back to the 15^th. century whose highest member is the Danish monarch and whose members include our own Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales.

 

• This, however, is by the by since the Order of the Elephant Kim refers to is one used by Valtech as an instant reward for good customer service or involvement  as mentioned by Chief Happiness Officer Alexander Kjerulf here . Actually, if you read the article you will see that  someone at Valtech volunteered to be Chief Happiness Officer for a year – an interesting proposal, do you think we could get it to fly?

There are Ground rules, apparently in the use of the Elephant.

• · Whenever you receive the elephant you may only hold on to it for a maximum of one week.
• · Whenever you pass along the elephant you need to tell the person you give it to why they receive it and send a mail with the name of the receiver and the reason why. (I’m working on a way to visualize the reasons).
• · When the elephant is in your possession he needs to be in plain view so everyone passing your desk can see him (and maybe even ask why you got it… hint hint).
• · Optional: Remember to supply him with lots of peanuts.

Now I’m not suggesting it is possible in as geographically diverse company as BT, although there would be a few smiles on receiving a stuffed elephant in the post as it was passed round the company, not am I suggesting using an elephant which obviously has deep resonance for the Danes (anyone got an old stiffed Buzby looking for a home? J)

AND

It does strike me as something that would have more meaning than a reward email (and when was the last time you received one of those?) and make people think about who the next candidate should be and help focus  on catching people doing something well.

 

Now I’m off the read Alexander Kjerulf’s blog on  why we should celebrate our mistkaes twitter tags to promote happiness at work