The Ant and The Dove - Random Acts of Kindness in the Workplace

This week my Twitter feed was a buzz with people celebrating #WorldKindnessDay. It got me thinking about kindness at work and how we might get more of it. So my gift to you is a story loosely based on Aesop’s Fable The Ant and the Dove.

Ant went to the bank of a river to quench her thirst. She leant in to take a drink, but was carried away by the rush of the stream. Dove, who was sitting on a tree overhanging the water, saw her nearly drowning. As Ant struggled, Dove plucked a leaf from the tree and let it fall into the stream close to the Ant. Ant climbed onto the leaf and floated in safety to the bank.

Soon afterwards, a bird catcher came and stood under the tree. He laid a trap for Dove, who was sitting in the branches. Ant noticed and stung the man in the foot.

The man howled in pain, scaring Dove into flying away from the trap.

The moral of this story could be summarized as ‘one good turn deserves another’. But it also reflects the fact that sometimes there doesn’t have to be a quid pro quo. Sometimes people just do incredible things for each other. At work, for example, they may go the extra mile delighting their customer, user or client.

Reflecting on this reminded me of an experience I had some years ago. Some people have heard me refer to this as ‘The Tesco Tale’.

I was driving home one day when my wife called me to ask me stop off at Tesco and buy some print cartridges. At that time Tesco Corstorphine was a football-pitch-sized single-story hypermarket. It was also about to double in size with the addition of an extra floor. All supermarkets have a habit of moving things around occasionally to keep us on our toes, but this was disorganized chaos. Nothing was where it normally was.

I asked at the entrance for directions and was politely waved in the right direction. Like an ant amongst all the other lost ants, I eventually found the section with the printer cartridges. It was a huge wall offering every type of cartridge you can imagine – yay! The specific requirement was to get the HP350 and HP351. Then came the overwhelming feeling of disappointment and irritation, when I discovered the empty pegs where the HP350 and HP351 should have been hanging. I knew that this was an urgent mission and failure was not an option!

An assistant then appeared out of nowhere, like the Dove swooping in with rescue leaf, to ask if he could help. I explained my predicament and he looked where I had looked. Nothing. He then opened the secret chamber - a massive drawer hidden underneath the wall, stuffed with hundreds of ink cartridges. He systematically rummaged. Nothing.

He then told me that he would look out the back (where they presumably have an even bigger drawer) and would return shortly. After 5 minutes or so he returned, somewhat forlorn. Nothing. He then suggested that Tesco had their own brand that might work, but typically the list of printers did not match. A good thought nonetheless.

I wandered off resigned, wondering whether I would have to face hot tongue and cold shoulder for my dinner. About 10 minutes later, as I was walking down Aisle 13 (the one crammed with more sweets and chocolate than you can shake a stick at), I saw someone running towards me brandishing something over his head. He was heading straight for me. After a moment of mild panic, I realised it was the assistant. He had gone to have a further look and managed to find an HP350. I was, of course, very pleased and thanked him for his very kind efforts.

I went home, pumped, and told my wife the story. She was very pleased too and asked if I had passed on my praise of the assistant to one of the managers. In all the excitement I hadn’t really given it any thought. I didn’t even clock his name. We take for granted good customer service – and we should. But not when it is clearly above and beyond expectations.

A while later, when I told the story to a Tesco executive, she explained that she wasn’t surprised. She told me that that the then Chief Executive would make a point of visiting all the stores and speaking directly to the staff. Instead of asking what was wrong that could be fixed, he would ask what was going well. This is what academics describe as Appreciative Inquiry or an asset-based approach. It is a simple way of asking how to make things even better, based more on inspiring leadership and than problem-solving management.

I wonder how much of our time in higher education is spent on asking simple and inspiring questions rather than fixing problems. Not enough. Having an inspirational Vice-Chancellor - which many of us do - is essential. But so is creating a climate that attracts and reinforces dove- and ant-like behavior – being kind and reciprocating, not because you have to, but because you want to.

At Glasgow Caledonian University we are about to open our annual Points of Pride exhibition, which celebrates many fantastic achievements that reflect our values in action. There are too many to mention here, but we now have a place and space where we can share and celebrate what we do well.

I am sorry though that I didn’t take the opportunity to tell the Tesco assistant’s bosses what excellent customer service I received. I am sure he will have behaved exactly the same way to the next customer regardless. What I can do is make sure that I learn from the experience and I take the time and trouble to recognize random (and not so random) acts of kindness. At GCU we have found that even a small amount of recognition goes an awful long way. But we have also found that this type of engaged, extra-mile performance is less to do with incentives and more to do with the climate we create where people can be their best selves.