Once a year at Thanksgiving, Lime teams in each office get together for our annual gratitude ritual.  It’s a time for us to pause, be present with each other and consciously bring to mind the things we are grateful for.  For new team members, it can feel a tad uncomfortable; a bit too authentic and real for comfort.   But, having participated in it, the universal response is that it is uplifting, deeply nourishing and injects and energy into the team that can be felt for a long time afterwards.  The research on the business benefits of gratitude has been mounting up for years now.  Just Google business benefits of gratitude and you’ll get a load of results.   Listening to this podcast is a good place to start  – https://hbr.org/2013/11/the-big-benefits-of-a-little-thanks.

But the ‘rules of the game’ that we are taught to follow in business don’t have an easy place for openly expressed heartfelt gratitude.  We have rewards and recognition.  We have performance bonuses.  These days there are even apps that enable you to send a virtual ‘high five’ to a team member to share your appreciation.  Yet our clients report that expressing gratitude and appreciation is not a regular part of their experience of work.  Not so at Lime.  The power of looking someone directly in the eye and sharing with them succinctly and authentically what you appreciate about them is like rocket fuel for team performance.  If you haven’t already, give it a try.

Now… for those of you who know Lime well, you know that we care deeply about our clients and each other… but we are not typically described as “soft and fluffy”.  On the same day as our annual gratitude ritual, we also hold our annual Thanksgiving cookoff.  It part celebratory dinner and part bare-knuckled-competitive-cooking.  This year the winning dish was seared scallops on a bed of butternut pumpkin puree topped with toasted pine nuts.  Yum!