My calendar reminded me that it was Frank Moretti’s birthday. I worked for him for five years at Columbia’s Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. He died in 2013. I still miss him. He introduced me to the practice of appreciations — the idea that you would address a colleague directly and thank them for something they’d done that helped you. All these years later, I am still grateful for all Frank taught me. I also have tried with varying degrees of success to bring this practice into other workplaces and settings.

It’s simple but powerful. At the top of every staff meeting we take a moment to pause. Whoever is facilitating the meeting that week will ask, “Are there any appreciations?” There may be some weeks when we don’t have them, but we usually do. Holding the space matters.

The basic recipe is that you address a person by name, tell them the thing they did and its impact on you.

• “Jess, I want to appreciate you for the remarks you previewed for me in advance of the awards dinner.They inspired me.”
• “Steve, I want to appreciate you for the updated budget format. The groupings are more logical and make it easier to communicate about our work.”
• “Erin, I want to appreciate you for noticing that no volunteers signed up to support the talk. You caught it in time and we were able to avoid what could have been a stressful crisis.”

Once you start this practice of appreciating in one meeting, it spills over into others, one-on-ones, or just conversations.

• Here’s one I received recently: “I was glad you pushed on adding that recommendations section to the finance proposal — it helped move the conversation forward when we were stuck.” I’d hesitated about doing that because it felt like overstepping. Turns out a colleague was grateful for the contribution.

Appreciations might feel awkward, stiff and/or vulnerable at first, but once a team realizes it isn’t performative, the rhythm settles in, the team finds its cadence, and it becomes powerful.

A related practice: noticings. I credit this one to my friend and former colleague, nova. Every team meeting has a designated facilitator and noticer. It’s the noticer’s role to share a few observations about the meeting when we close. Noticings may be positive or negative. The practice of having it rotate ensures that everyone gets a chance to notice. Examples might include:

• “I noticed that Erin was very effective at bringing us back to the agenda item when we started to wander.”
• “The dad puns were especially ooof-inducing this morning.”
• “I noticed that we kept interrupting each other today, and we’ve agreed not to talk over each other.”

Once the designated noticer shares, then anyone else with a noticing is welcome to chime in. This practice is a logical close at the end of a meeting and its impact builds over time. Easy noticings can lead to more insightful ones. For our team, we realized that we were regularly bringing up issues that needed more time. That led to the creation of time-limited project meetings that then reported back to the whole group. Noticing is an essential ingredient for change or keeping things the same. We cannot change what we do not see.

I want to acknowledge that this piece is, itself, an appreciation of Frank and nova. What practices have you brought from one context or organization to another? Who taught you that practice? Who helped you see what you couldn’t see alone?