t. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy languageImagine a sports event without a scoreboard. Makes you chuckle, doesn’t it? Sure the game is fun, but without the scoreboard you can’t know the progress… or the winner!

Margaret’s Story

Margaret, the director of a social service agency, was desperate. Absenteeism was high, grievances were mounting, errors were rampant, and no one was talking about improvement. I asked her to name the one thing she would most like to change, and she said, “Morale. If we had higher morale, employees would be more willing to work on the other problems.” When I asked how she would measure morale, she said, “Smiles.” My suggestion was that we place a big scoreboard on the wall. We asked all the employees to keep track of the number of smiles they saw and give their totals to the receptionist at the end of the day. The results were charted on the scoreboard.

The first three days were awful: about one-half smile per employee. Then Margaret came to work in a garish wig and acted perfectly normally. No one mentioned the wig, but smiles were up 100 percent. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy language

bsenteeism was high, grievances were mounting, errors were rampant, and no one was talking about improvement. I asked her to name the one thing she would most like to change, and she said, “Morale. If we had higher morale, employees would be more willing to work on the other problems.” When I asked how she would measure morale, she said, “Smiles.” My suggestion was that we place a big scoreboard on the wall. We asked all the employees to keep track of the number of smiles they saw and give their totals to the receptionist at the end of the day. The results were charted on the scoreboard.

The first three days were awful: about one-half smile per employee. Then Margaret came to work in a garish wig and acted perfectly normally. No one mentioned the wig, but smiles were up 100 percent. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy language

the other problems.” When I asked how she would measure morale, she said, “Smiles.” My suggestion was that we place a big scoreboard on the wall. We asked all the employees to keep track of the number of smiles they saw and give their totals to the receptionist at the end of the day. The results were charted on the scoreboard.

The first three days were awful: about one-half smile per employee. Then Margaret came to work in a garish wig and acted perfectly normally. No one mentioned the wig, but smiles were up 100 percent. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy language

the end of the day. The results were charted on the scoreboard.

The first three days were awful: about one-half smile per employee. Then Margaret came to work in a garish wig and acted perfectly normally. No one mentioned the wig, but smiles were up 100 percent. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy language

t. Then, the receptionist wore way-too-much lipstick that was way-too-red. Employees made jokes about her sobriety and her personal relationships. Result: smiles were up another 200 percent. On the sixth day, four employees wore cowboy hats and used cowboy language all day long. People began to conspire to see how they could reach five hundred smiles in one day. It took only three more days. The place was full of weird hats, baby pictures, Internet jokes, and funny accents. After two weeks, the employees formed a High Morale Action Team (“The Clowns”). This team designed activities to keep people smiling. They instituted dress-down days and dress-up days, one-color days, and more. A year later, absenteeism was near zero, grievances were nonexistent, and errors were down by 83 percent.

Scorekeeping With Colleagues

List all the ways you’ve seen games scored. Use these methods with your work teams as you compete for prizes. Try keeping track of: Productivity, Speed, Quality, Work skills, Clients you contact, New ideas that you have shared, and Meetings that end early.