Yesterday I spoke to 200 people at Umbraco Codegarden 2010, an annual IT developer conference for web developers who use the open source CMS system Umbraco.
Niels Hartvig, the founder of Umbraco, has a clear vision that focuses on both a good platform (so that the actual product is great) but equally on creating a great community, so that people want to be actively engaged in sharing knowledge, developing code and helping each other.
I kicked the conference off with a high-energy presentation on happiness at work and how these 250 coders, consultants and evangelists can create a happy community and it was very well received.
Then Niels gave his keynote in which he also celebrated the people who have gone above and beyond in their work on Umbraco.
Before I went on, Niels told me that here was one person in particular, that they wanted to celebrate for his excellent work and energy. So this is what they gave him:
They bough him a really fancy espresso machine and had his name and award engraved on it. Not only did it make him happy, it will also keep him caffeinated and highly productive :o) The only problem is that the damn thing weights 18 kilos (35 pounds) and Shannon will have to lug it home to Australia.
This is an excellent way to celebrate a person in front of 250 of his peers because it’s fun, personalized, quirky and relevant – all the hallmarks of a good reward.
Have you ever been rewarded in a similar way? How does your organization reward people who go the extra mile? Please write a comment – I’d love to know your take.
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