Nudge · 2-minute read
Publicly recognising a few specific top performers lifted output across the whole group — with much of the gain coming from people who weren’t recognised.
In a field experiment with more than 300 workers on a data-entry shift, unannounced thank-you cards were handed out partway through. When everyone got a card, output rose about 5%. When only the top three got one, output rose about 7% — and the non-recipients improved too.
Specific recognition does two jobs: it rewards the person, and it shows everyone else what good looks like. Thanking everyone equally does the first job weakly and the second not at all.
The research: Bradler, Dur, Neckermann & Non (2016), Management Science.
Adapted from Nudges at Work by Tareef Jafferi, shared in partnership with Happily.ai.
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