Everyone loves a good compliment, right? I designed this little project to share some positive energy and to encourage the flow of kind thoughts in order to give us all (me, included!) a break from negative thinking. I’ll admit, when I’m stressed or haven’t slept enough, I can be pretty cynical, and especially under these conditions, my brain defaults to downer thoughts (thank you, depression). I do, however, know that when I compliment someone, or when someone compliments me, I feel better. I told myself I wanted to compliment people more– strangers, friends, acquaintances, and anyone in between. I also knew that setting a vague goal for myself, like “giving more compliments,” wouldn’t be the most effective method of achieving said goal; I needed something a little more in-your-face and concrete.
So, I came up with this idea:
The “jar” is actually an empty Folger’s coffee container (if you couldn’t tell :-P), and the explanation is written on the inside of one of a million unused Thank You cards I have sitting around the apartment. I decided to put this “jar” in my place of work– Qdoba! Over Christmas Break, my boss purchased a community board, which had only 2 random flyers on it. Why not make use of the board, help myself achieve my goal of giving more compliments, encouraging others to do the same, and spread some positive vibes in the process?
The little colored slips of paper on which people write their anonymous compliments were actually just divider pages separating all the documents sent from the copy center to the lab I work in. Instead of throwing them away, I used them for my little personal community project!
So… most of these were written by my coworkers and their friends, BUT there are a few compliments from actual customers! At least it adds some personality to our store and fosters kind thinking, at least to some extent!
The two in the middle were actually written by customers. The majority of the board at this point is anonymous compliments to Qdoba employees, which wasn’t my intention; it was to get people to compliment anyone! Did I not explain it well on my little directions card? Oh well, the overlying purpose was to spread some positive vibes, and I think I accomplished that.
The compliment at the top of this picture is one I wrote for a specific customer. He always orders his food very politely, and takes the time to ask each of us on the serving line how we are doing on that particular day. It’s kind of difficult to be cynical when you come across someone well-mannered and thoughtful. I also wrote it to remind myself that the simple act of interacting with someone polite can relieve stress, which encourages me to speak more politely and take the time to ask someone how their day is going. I feel as though with our generation, our sense of community is disappearing; technology replaces human interaction. I, too, am at fault of this!… another reason why I do these little community-building things– to force me to positively interact with other people.
In order to encourage more customers to participate, I was thinking of putting the names of those who participate in a drawing to win a Qdoba gift card. However, this might take away the anonymity of the compliments, because I’d at least need the name and e-mail address of whomever participates so I can contact them if they win. I also don’t want people not participating and just providing contact info for the drawing. Any suggestions?
Marilee Fritsch 