How NASA Builds Teams: Mission Critical Soft Skills for Scientists, Engineers, and Project Teams

CHAPTER 12

People Need to Feel Appreciated by You

 

 

 

We work through the eight behaviors in the following chapters. The sequence is the same as the Context Shifting Worksheet’s, which is our preferred order of application. We begin with the “express authentic appreciation” behavior (Figure 12.1).

FIGURE 12.1 Appreciation, the First of the Eight Behaviors

When workshop participants name their most powerful take-away from our workshops, they choose “expressing authentic appreciation” most often. The experiential exercises in this chapter are memorable. Download the PowerPoint slides for this behavior, and take your teammates through the material in this chapter.

Consider the following: “In the financial world, we use the term appreciate to mean growing in value. When you master habitual appreciation, you and everything around you grows in value.” Mother Teresa is commonly credited with saying, “There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”

What Is Most Important to People?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (1986) reported that employees name appreciation as what they most want at work. I know the reference is a bit dated, but it does not matter. The result would be the same at any time in human history once people had food and shelter. We all need to feel appreciated. Notice the word “feel.” Are you skeptical? If so, reflect ...