Rather fortuitously I have been asked to give a talk on Joy in work to a group of matrons. I have bought a stack of thank you postcards (£6.99 from amazon for 120- I hope they arrive in time) and some fredo chocolates. I will get them to fill some in and read them out throughout the presentation, but also take some away to use with their teams.
This idea was based on an excerpt from “mixed signals” by Uri Gneezy. He sited pret a manger who issue bonuses to employees on promotion, but they have to give the voucher to someone who helped them. The helper feels appreciated and the promoted person gets a warm glow that they wouldn’t have from just spending the voucher. I know there is lots of research about the importance of a thank you culture, but this was the thing that really struck me.