Stuffin' Envelopes

I once worked in an organization where the Vice-President was a fanatic about recognition of employees. Any recognition submission that crossed his desk would be approved without question. The managers in his organization soon realized they could enrich their employees by using the recognition program. Every month, there would be a recognition All-Hands meeting when everyone who had won an award would be recognized in front of their peers. The atmosphere was great for morale, at least initially.

One manager took the company's recognition generosity a little too far. That manager's team was required to submit nearly a thousand applications for collocation space by a certain date and were a little behind. So the manager asked each of his employees to stay a couple hours late one Friday evening to complete the 1,000 submissions and get them in the mail before the deadline. He brought in pizza for them to feed on while they worked. His entire team plus a few people from other teams participated in the work. In all, around 25 people stayed a couple hours late, ate pizza, visually checked 1,000 applications and stuffed them in envelopes for mailing. They knocked the work out relatively quickly.

At the next monthly recognition event, all 25 were recognized for their stuffin' envelopes work with a small monetary award and a crystal trophy referred to as an Excellence Award. When the team's accomplishment was announced, more than a few in the room began to squirm. After all, the description of the Excellence award was that one was given to those who display great innovation, perform in areas beyond their job description, or complete a difficult project with exceptional quality. The team of 25 had not met that expectation. In fact, all they had done was very menial tasks associated to their job.

The misuse of the recognition program actually caused morale to suffer. Those who had won an Excellence award in the past wondered if they really deserved it. Future winners would also wonder if they really deserved it. The act of giving 25 undeserved awards had cheapened the recognition experience and tainted the program indefinitely.

Does this sound familiar? It should. Barrack Obama was awarded with the Nobel Peace prize after serving an astounding 9 days in office. The award committee explained the selection by saying that he earned it by setting goals for the United States that would foster world peace. Setting goals? In the real world of business, setting goals is never rewarded. Meeting goals is however even this should not be seen as extraordinary. We are hired to meet goals set by our leaders.

Does Obama's Nobel award cheapen the prize? You bet. Consider former winners and see for yourself if Barrack's accomplishments measure up. Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mother Theresa, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Began, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, and Albert Schweitzer are among past winners. These are people who were recognized for accomplishing something significant, not because they set goals for others to meet. To Obama's credit, even he said the award was undeserved. However, you can bet he will use this award to further his world-view agenda.

But we must also remember that Al Gore won the award a couple years ago for promoting his bogus man made global warming rubbish. Barrack's Peace Prize is just another award in a recent series that only serve to cheapen the Nobel for past and future winners.