Inspired by a post I saw linked on pinboard, I wanted to share my story about why it’s important in larger organizations where you’re working with several interdependent teams that you recognize good work.

The team I’m working on at New Relic collaborates with several other teams. And it’s important that we work well together to deliver the best possible experience for our customers. If we don’t, it’s the customer that ultimately suffers. Part of working well together means giving feedback, both positive and not.

Here’s an example I wrote up for a person I collaborated with to deliver an awesome experience for our customers:

Hi Elaine. I know talent review is coming up soon and I wanted to pass along some positive feedback while working with Ben over the past few months.

On the Open Instrumentation Experience team, we needed Ben’s help to ensure a big part of our team’s launch deliverables. Throughout the process, I appreciated his communication and how, even though it wasn’t a part of his team’s deliverables, he treated it as if it were. Without his help, we likely wouldn’t have been able to ship in time and delight our customers with a first-class experience for open instrumented applications. Ben’s awesome!

If you would like more info here, let me know. Just wanted to pass along that little tidbit.

Not only did I tell Ben’s manager that he did a good job, I explained the what, the how, and what the impact was. It’s these little things that go a long way in improving the culture. It also one of those things that makes me feel good too.

I hope this inspires you to notice the good work and promote it to the people that may not have that perspective.