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A full year has passed since the MIT Rewards and Recognition Program was launched and implemented throughout the Institute. As a result we are experiencing a gradual but important shift towards a praise-full culture. You may recall reading about the program in last February’s edition of the Faculty Newsletter (Vol. XIII No. 3), in which Professor Lotte Bailyn commented that “…augmenting the opportunities for recognition and allowing special contributions to be rewarded at the time they are made…helps MIT create a praise-full zone…The ability to do good work and to get it recognized, to feel valued for what one is doing…are… key aspects of what employees want….”
By now you have likely seen these sentiments become a reality for staff in your departments, labs, and centers through one or more of the various awards available. The Appreciation and Infinite Mile awards have taken on their own character in your local areas. The success to date of these components was clearly illustrated in the September 26 issue of Tech Talk, via a special insert. This publication included a listing of the 275 Infinite Mile award recipients who were honored last spring and summer, and it offered congratulations to an additional 400 staff who had been given Appreciation Awards in their areas. Quotes referencing many of their exceptional contributions and achievements were included and related to such qualities as excellence in communication, collaboration, results-orientation, customer service, leadership, mentoring, and innovation. (To request a copy of the insert, please e-mail me at jstineha@mit.edu.)
The third component of the Rewards and Recognition Program, the MIT Excellence Awards, was celebrated at an Institute-wide ceremony on October 3, 2001 in the Wong Auditorium. More than 350 faculty and staff attended in honor of the 7 teams and 14 individuals who received awards. The exceptional achievements of these MIT employees were acknowledged in award categories that reflected the Institute’s mission and included: Building Bridges, Fostering an Inclusive Workplace, Leading Change, Making a Difference in our Communities, Serving the Client, and Working Smarter/Getting Results. Complete descriptions of each award category, the award recipients, and their specific achievements, can be found at the Rewards and Recognition Website: http://web.mit.edu/personnel/www/rewards/mitaward.htm.
Much of the success of the October celebration was a result of the tremendous amount of faculty and staff support and participation in the nomination process. We greatly appreciate the more than 120 outstanding nomination letters that were written and that made for a very competitive selection process. The Selection Committee included a cross section of faculty and staff, with representatives from the main campus and Lincoln Laboratory, and a balance between the academic and administrative areas. The primary factor guiding the Committee’s decisions was the breadth and depth of the achievement, as it related to the award criteria. Secondarily, the Committee selected finalists who would represent a cross section of staff, both teams and individuals, and who represented the academic and central administrative areas, as well as multiple job classifications.
If your nominee was not awarded this year, we encourage you to submit your nominations to your local area key contact for consideration for an Infinite Mile Award, and/or to acknowledge the individual with an Appreciation Award. The latter could simply come in the form of a letter of gratitude sent to the individual and his/her supervisor. We have received much feedback from staff that such gestures of thanks are tremendously meaningful. To locate your area contact and information about these locally managed awards, please go to: http://web.mit.edu/personnel/www/rewards/contact.html. In addition, you may submit a nomination for the 2002 annual Excellence Awards, which will be announced in late spring and awarded in October at the next annual Institute-wide ceremony.
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