Small gestures of kindness let your colleagues know you care, whether it be making someone a coffee, offering to bring them back some food from the supermarket, or just leaving a note letting them know their work is appreciated.
“Random acts of workplace kindness can be from person to person,” says Arlette. “[At the office of] one of our clients, called Orsted, people surprise each other with small Post-it notes on each other’s computer screens or decorating the rooms and this is just to show a colleague that you care.”
The random acts of kindness can also be exchanged between teams. “When it goes from team to team, you can invite your colleagues to coffee, to a meeting, you can make them pancakes, you can invite them and share what you’re working on,” says Arlette.
“So you can actually have knowledge sharing while surprising them with coffees, or smoothies, or pancakes, or whatever. It’s not only for the relationships, but it’s also for creating better results and knowledge sharing within the company.”
Resources and related content
- 11 takeaways from the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference: read Henry’s blog about all the big ideas discussed at the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference.
- Take The Happy Challenge – Henry’s challenges managers to make no decisions for three months.
- Click here to see Woohoo inc founder Alex Kjerulf speaking at the 2013 Creating Happy Workplaces conference.