Kaizen is a Japanese phrase used in business to describe the commitment to continuous improvement. It’s an attitude of making small, regular “changes for the better”, aiming at greater efficiency, increased productivity, higher safety, and increased staff morale for example. It epitomises a learning organisation.

Here at EndGame we like Kaizen. We’re good, but we want to be better, so we try things out. If someone has an idea on how we might improve an aspect of what we do, we run little, safe, experiments. These involve tweaks to our processes, practices or products over a set period of time. We take some data before, during and after the experiment as a build-measure-learn feedback cycle to help us validate any learning. Ultimately we want to make good decisions, and experiments are a good way of supporting them.

Here Comes Mad Props!

We had a singular moment of convergence — an opportunity to have our Summer of Tech Interns (Bryan and Simon) inducted into the ways of EndGame by working on a project that would help us learn about giving meaningful team recognition.

We work with totally amazing people and we do amazing things all the time. But it’s the problems that we need to solve that tend to make far more noise than the ones we have solved. Stopping long enough to think of the good things that are happening and sharing them, is a win-win situation — a win for the business and a win for the team member. There is a lot of research on how important recognition is, with one study showing that the number one reason people leave their job’s is that they don’t feel appreciated.

Combine research, ideas from Jurgen Appelo and some smart and eager Summer of Tech interns and you have the recipe for a great experiment.

The Build

The hypothesis we are testing is: staff feel happier at work in an environment of recognition. The tool we are using to test this is MadProps.

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The first iteration involved a Slack integration, web service, a printer service on a Raspberry Pi hooked up to a receipt printer. The prop-er (our phrase for the person giving the recognition) entered a message of recognition into Slack to a prop-ee (the recognition recipient). And the intern ninjas magically make this print! The prop-er grabs the print out, talks the prop-ee, then puts the print out on the prop wall so the whole office sees what a rock star someone was.

Iteration two added a feed to our office signage and a mention in Slack. Sharing the recognition is a big part of making things meaningful.

Next Steps

We are currently in the measure phase of our feedback loop. EndGamer’s are giving each other props, the tech is stable, the intern’s learned our dev environment and produced a product that we believe is valuable. The next step is to finish our trial and get feedback from our users (staff) to see if staff feel happier and if MadProps is a valid vehicle for giving meaningful recognition.

Initial conclusions on a less serious note — it’s a very fun thing to have in the office!

Shout out to the awesome team at Summer of Tech and the inspiration at Management30.com

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