18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "Areas for growth part 1: Continual appreciative dialogue"
date: 2020-02-20
authors:
- victor-udoewa
tags:
- culture
- how we work
- lessons learned
excerpt: "Continual Appreciative Dialogue (CAD) is the practice of expressing recurring praise or gratitude to a teammate or collaborator in conversation and throughout a working relationship. The practice of CAD is special because it is uncommon."
---

*Usually organizational blogs, especially blogs by civic tech
organizations, focus primarily on sharing successes. However, we have
found that we actually learn far more from our failures than
from our successes.*

*So, we created this series to share our areas for growth, in hopes that
you can learn just as much from our process as from our successes. This
series was developed from ongoing conversations by a diverse group of
18F members, including both term-limited and career employees who have
varying levels of experience and tenure (e.g., freshly arrived to more
than 5 years). We joined together to talk about ways to improve our
techniques, approach, dynamics, and strategy. Part 1 of our series is
about Continual Appreciative Dialogue.*

Continual Appreciative Dialogue (CAD) is the practice of expressing
recurring praise or gratitude to a teammate or collaborator in
conversation and throughout a working relationship. The practice of CAD
is special because it is uncommon. Most organizations generally practice
Cumulative Appreciative Farewell (CAF). CAF is the practice of gathering
and storing up praise and gratitude for a teammate over time, and then
sharing it with them when the person is leaving an organization or a
working relationship. In the practice of CAF, the person receiving
praise or thanks can often be surprised since this person may be hearing
the appreciation for the first time. In contrast to CAF, CAD is not
triggered by a farewell but offers appreciation in the moment.

Even though some of our term-limited employees will be leaving this year, when we offer farewell
appreciation, it will not be cumulative or a surprise. It will be
another expression of how we already regularly appreciate them.

## Strategy Summit

We began practicing CAD at a gathering of 18F strategists in January 2019. We discovered that appreciation can be given in many ways.

During the summit, each person was given appreciation in three ways.
First, the person is praised for who they are and how they show up in
the world. Next, the person is thanked for gestures, actions, and
activities they had done, whether for an individual, the group, or the
organization. Finally, the person is offered a wish, hope, desire, or
challenge, going forward in the future. The last part is intriguing
because the statement can possibly suggest future appreciation as the
person grows to embody or fulfill the hope or challenge.

## Challenge

Publicly sharing appreciation can have an even greater impact than a
personal appreciation shared between two people. When you hear good
things about your teammate or colleague from someone else, tell the
person so they know. Sharing praise is extremely helpful because often
the person being praised is unaware.

The practice of CAD can radically change your organization. When kudos
and praise are shared regularly at activities like performance reviews,
project retros, and organizational meetings, it is simply icing on an
already full cake, and becomes a public expression of what is regularly
done between colleagues. It reinforces healthy behaviors. Over time,
when done well, CAD can marginalize or push out negative behaviors that
do not receive praise.

As civic tech organizations, we need to practice CAD much more than CAF.
Instead of storing up all the good things about people and then sharing
it with them when they leave, let us try to continually share them with
each other throughout our time together.