Dec 20, 2021 End the Year On a High Note and Celebrate Your Group With Postcard Appreciations
In my ongoing community building and professional development with work teams and student and faculty groups, I traditionally facilitate a “Postcard Appreciations” activity in December meetings or classes to give participants a morale lift and end the year on a high note. Postcards are one of my favorite tools for sharing appreciation and celebrating group members’ strengths, positive qualities, and contributions. Using imagery sparks positive reflective conversations and feedback in a non-intimidating way — strengthening the community and cultivating positive norms. Objects such as toy animals or “Miniature Metaphors” could also be used for this purpose, but I tend to use my “Pick-a-Postcards” as I like to have participants write the note to themselves on the back of their postcard, which I send to them later. I regularly facilitate this activity with both online and in person groups. Depending on the setting and participant numbers, it can be facilitated as a whole group experience or in smaller breakout groups – whichever is appropriate for your situation. This is designed for groups that having been working together for a significant period of time and know each other well.
Facilitation Suggestions:
- Invite participants to pick an image (or object) that represents a personal strength, a positive quality they contribute to the team or, a unique perspective they bring to their work.
- For hybrid or online experiences, I send or use the postcards in-person at the site ahead of the online meeting or use photos of my postcards through screen sharing or a Jamboard.
- Ask participants to take turns holding up their postcard or object while their colleagues or peers guess why they chose it. This is a wonderful opportunity for people to hear encouraging feedback and insights from others. Depending on the nature of your group, this could be done as a whole team or in smaller breakout groups.
- I encourage the group to take time with this process and for the receiver to listen and give their peers a chance to celebrate them before talking about their card. They should, of course, clarify their interpretation of what the card is but let their teammates guess how it represents their strengths as this is where the opportunity for celebration and giving and receiving appreciation happens. I find that peers share thoughtful celebrations and insights beyond the reasons the individual chose the image or object.
- Next, ask participants receiving the appreciations to share how close the group came to guessing why they chose the card/object.
- When using postcards, consider inviting participants to write a note on the postcard about these strengths as a reminder and take it with them as a memento. Or, I have them self-address the postcard and send their reminder note to them at a future date. See the Postcard to Your Future Self post for more ideas about using postcard reminders.
Note: This technique is also a lead-up to one of my favorite closing or end-of-program activities, “Postcard to Your Future Self.” 
Facilitation Notes: I use this activity with groups who know each other well enough to give meaningful appreciations and with participants who have built comfort within the group for sharing. I often use it as a closing with groups I have worked over time. It is a valuable opportunity for learners to practice giving and receiving positive feedback and insights from others. This celebration of personal strengths and contributions from colleagues or fellow students is something that doesn’t happen enough in the workplace or school.
Reference: The strengths guessing idea was first suggested to me by a participant in the midst of a postcard partner sharing activity at the Chewonki Foundation many years ago. Since that spontaneous experiment, I have used this approach with numerous groups with very positive results. See my Inspired Educator, Inspired Learner book for more on this and other reflection and appreciation activities.
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