Hold your own team values awards ceremony

• TIME REQUIRED

  30 mins
• EFFORT

  Medium
• TEAM SIZE

  5 or more
• GOOD FOR

  Reward and recognition

Step 1: work out your values

In the public sector, we all live the 7 public sector values:

1. Responsiveness
2. Integrity
3. Impartiality
4. Accountability
5. Respect
6. Leadership
7. Human Rights

In your team, you may have adapted these into your own team-specific values.

If you haven’t, check out Run a values workshop before you do this activity.

Step 2: identify what awards you’re giving to who

Think if you want your team to nominate others for awards.

Or keep a record of who you’ve awarded in the past, so you can make sure everyone gets an award at some point.

Put some time aside each month to look back on your team’s achievements or who your team has nominated.

Match these with the public sector values or your team’s values.

Step 3: work out when you want to ‘hold’ it

Think if you want to set up a dedicated time for your awards ceremony or run it as part of a regular meeting.

Make sure it’s a time that suits the diverse needs of each of your team members.

Think of things like this:

• Do some people work better earlier or later in the day?
• Does anyone have kids or caring responsibilities that mean they need to start late or leave early?
• Is there a time to avoid due to other work commitments?

Step 4: hold your ceremony

Here’s a rough schedule of how you could run your ceremony.

Acknowledge country (20 seconds)

Always acknowledge the traditional owners before you start.

It shows your respect for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

Set the scene (10 minutes)

Tell everyone why you’re here:

“We’re here to recognise important achievements of our team. We all play a role in living our values.”

Reinforce the message that everyone plays their part:

“These awards are to build our team’s culture of recognising each other’s achievements.”

Announcements (10 minutes)

Announce your awards like you’re in an awards ceremony:

“We would like to acknowledge the efforts of [name] for [award name]…”

Make sure you detail why their work earned them this award.

Think of some creative ways to acknowledge them, such as:

• endorse them for a skill on LinkedIn
• give them a certificate to display
• offer a signed letter for their records

Wrap up (10 minutes)

Ask others if they’d like to congratulate the award recipients. This encourages peer-to-peer recognition.

Tell everyone when you’ll hold the next award ceremony and reiterate what kind of work you’re looking for from them.