.Share about things that you have started noticing & appreciating in your
surroundings / community / people around you that you did not notice earlier. 5 pages
Answers
THE IMPORTANCE OF GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION IN COMMUNITY BUILDING
If you are helping to build communities, you are likely to be a busy person. Each day is full of tasks to accomplish and decisions to make. Can my organization really afford to buy a new computer? How can I get the word out about our new project? Do we have the time to attend a conference? Is the copy machine finally fixed? These and so many other tasks are the everyday stuff of community life and work. They have their importance, and they can’t really be ignored.
Gratitude and appreciation, by contrast, are not daily demands. They will not, by themselves, keep the lights on or get the staff paid. Although gratitude and appreciation may seem abstract and postponable, or even dispensable, they are just as important in their own way.
Why? We’ll offer several reasons.
Gratitude and appreciation both bring us into deeper contact with our communities. Being able to focus even momentarily on what is working and what we are thankful for can lift us up and out of our single-mindedness and into a more integrated sense of connection with the physical world, and the community around us.
In work and life, we seek more than material rewards. Studies have shown that in for-profit organizations, money is not the primary component of employee satisfaction. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor found that “the number one reason why people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated” (64%; more than any other reason). Similarly and strikingly, a Gallup poll found that almost 70% of American employees state that they receive no praise or recognition in the workplace in a given year.
The importance of appreciation is even more relevant for community organizations and groups that rely on volunteers, where staff are typically unpaid or paid less than in business enterprises. It has also become apparent that, in general, younger generations of workers are less and less motivated by money, and are increasingly prioritizing social benefits such as appreciation and recognition to provide job satisfaction.
Sharing gratitude typically provides both the giver and the receiver with a sense of well-being. And this may create a gratitude cycle – one where the person who receives our gratitude extends their gratitude or appreciation back to us, and/or out to others. Each person is thus enriched, as they expand their expression and reception of gratitude.
Have you noticed this within your own workplace or community? Why not try it out and share your appreciation with someone, about some part of your work or community life? What happened as a result? Did sharing appreciation affect you positively? Did you notice if it affected your environment positively? How did the other person receive your recognition? For our work in community building, offering and receiving authentic appreciation can build trust, a sense of belonging, and a desire for inclusion and participation in a program or project.
In community building – and within groups and organizations – gratitude and appreciation can enhance interactions. They can bring us into positive contact with others. They help create deeper bonds of relationship, motivating individuals and teams, and unifying groups toward a shared purpose. Whether we are sharing insights, experiences, or conversations, expressions of gratitude and appreciation help to build trust between people and groups. And by sharing stories or acts of gratitude and appreciation, we draw from our past to illuminate a brighter future.