Kudo Cards: easily share positive feedback

A set of cards for use before, during or after workshops

How can you boost your team’s feedback culture when remote working is the rule?  Kudo Cards are a simple tool that employees can use to express their appreciation, send congratulations and boost each other’s motivation. The Kudo Cards Template is very easy to set up and gives your team easy access to a dedicated workspace to share feedback.

The ideal tool for team-based motivation and debriefing

What are Kudo Cards? What is Klaxoon?

The Greek word ‘kudo’ means ‘a thing of great renown’, or the acclaim that stems from a successful action.  On a more practical level, it means the many ways of praising someone for work well done, i.e. ’well done’, ‘congratulations’, ‘thanks’…  The principle underlies the practice of encouraging team members to express appreciation for a project, for help received on a particular issue, during a workshop or any other form of positive feedback that can potentially be shared with the team.  How? With a set of cards that all team members can use as a visual aid to express their feelings.  They can add a message with further details and to expand on ideas.  This very straightforward process fosters feedback culture within a team!

Why use Kudo Cards?

‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions.’  This quote by US author and management consultant Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is one of the cornerstones of current management strategies.  Giving teams constructive and regular feedback on their work is the most efficient way to help them advance their projects.  It is also a sign of appreciation, promoting associate motivation and team building.    

In fact, collecting feedback from associates is crucial for companies and managers as remote working becomes the new normal.  Kudo Cards meets this objective on a daily basis, allowing everyone to give specific feedback on a completed task, project or any other job performed by the team.  Unlike formal feedback sharing, which may be uncomfortable for some, Kudo Cards turn feedback sharing into a fun, natural and spontaneous experience.  Receiving good vibes is an incentive to highlight others’ successes: if I get appreciation for a task I completed to help a colleague, I’ll also want to praise a member of my team! The process feeds on itself.  This “feel good” method generates a virtuous cycle that promotes a positive mindset among the team. It‘s a collaborative and highly motivating activity that fosters team building at the beginning or at the end of a training session, a workshop or a meeting, etc.

So, how do Kudo Cards work?

‍To use the Kudo Cards, select cards based on their design, your corporate identity, a general topic or a more specific one.  Then, post them for all to see. The key step is setting up the interface so the team can pick Kudo Cards and use them to share feedback.  To do so, choose a neutral background which will make your cards stand out and encourage participants to give detailed feedback.  Obviously, simply congratulating or thanking a colleague with a card is not enough. There must be something to tell them what you are thanking them for!  This way, the feedback will be clearer, more constructive and on target.  Kudo Cards are a vehicle to express appreciation of a completed job and minimize turnover.

Kudo Cards became popular with the rise of management 3.0 and agile methods. The cards were initially printed, cut out and posted on a board, kudo wall or in a kudo box.  With Board, you can use an unlimited supply of cards and run your workshops in one place, store feedback, elaborate on it and promote interaction on a daily basis.

The Kudo Cards Template is your perfect work partner!

Board is the key visual tool to foster feedback culture

A ready-to-use template for sharing feedback

Board is Klaxoon’s flagship tool. An ever-expanding whiteboard that can accommodate any type of content (e.g. text, drawing, image, video, web links, and more), whether on site or remotely. Board features a template library, so you can run the Kudo Cards template and customize it, for instance to match your corporate design, in no time.  A set of Kudo Cards comes with a design, symbols and messages designed to boost interaction, but you can choose to use your own cards.  All you need to do is upload your images directly to the Board.  Follow the tips for a quick setup and then invite your team to connect and start a Live session, Board’s video conferencing tool, to run your workshop, wrap up your training session or any other event that involves feedback sharing.

Expressing appreciation to team members even remotely

Invite your team to join the Board. Everyone can connect to Board via a smartphone, computer or tablet and can take part whenever they wish.  You can decide to leave the Board open and invite participants to share their feedback at any time or start Kudo Cards at some point in time or at the end of a workshop, meeting or training session. Anyone can participate, even remotely or when working from home. Once all the participants have filled in the Board and the debriefing session is over, you can now close the activity and generate an automatic report that you can store in a number of formats.

Kudo Cards pluses

In a nutshell, using Kudo Cards and organizing feedback sessions with Klaxoon’s template is the key to boosting team motivation.  Board makes feedback sharing an easy, intuitive and natural experience. Kudo Cards become a regular habit that fosters feedback culture and promotes team work, whether the teams are working on site or remotely.