Are Your Comments More Valuable Than Your Likes?

Many social recognition programs available from vendors operate very similar to Meta/Facebook. You have a social newsfeed where you can add status updates. And you can send themed specific ecards or social badges to celebrate achievements, thank people for their help, reward performance goals reached, and acknowledge colleagues’ birthdays and milestone celebrations. 

And there is something else that each of us can do. As we go on to our recognition and reward programs, there is the special opportunity to like the various recognition messages sent and to even add our personal comments.

Does liking and commenting make a difference to people? Is one better than the other? 

Let’s explore some research and see if we can extrapolate anything that we can apply in our social recognition programs. 

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How To Use “I” Talk Versus “You” Talk in Your Recognition

Bad things can happen when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Take the scenario of a young man I knew in his twenties making a quick purchase of snack foods and a pop at the local convenience store in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Another man walks in to the store. But this man’s intent is to rob the convenience store of cash from the till.

This second man’s weapon of choice was a screwdriver. He stabbed the young man in the head because he was in the way. The stabbing penetrated his skull and brain resulting in motor brain damage as far as walking and use of his arm. But now he could not talk.

All he could say were approximations of consonant-vowel sounds like, “ma”, “ba”, “do”, or “to”.

This young man’s horrific life experience led me to learn how to give more meaningful recognition expressions using “I” talk language. I’ll explain.

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My Beginnings Into Employee Recognition

Once upon a time, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Okay, so it was just over 30 years ago at the Detroit Rehabilitation Institute, now the DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM).

I was completing my adult clinical placement as a Speech-Language Pathologist from Wayne State University, Communication Sciences and Disorders. (more…)