Uplifting a Community through
Acts of Appreciation
Lifted
Challenge
Combat feelings of loneliness and underappreciation on a college campus and NYC workplace.
Outcome
Lifted, a campaign and installation focused on uplifting others.
Opportunity
How might we create a feeling of belonging and appreciation within communities?
Role
Identified problem, conceptualized activation, implemented and scaled model to other contexts. This was a project done independently while at Cornell, collaborating with other university leaders.
1. Discover
Through intercept interviews with students from across campus, we learned that many students struggled with their mental health from the stress of classes, relationships and new environments.
We discovered the following insights:
Students felt lonely when they weren’t able to create meaningful connections with others
It’s difficult to feel part of the larger Cornell community when you only connect with existing social circles and colleges
Uplifting others is a contagious act. Those who felt connected and appreciated often uplifted others after being uplifted by their peers or faculty
We wondered:
How might we create a culture of connection and appreciation?
2. Design
Combat Loneliness
We began to conceptualize an activation that could help combat loneliness on our campus through the simple and radical act of showing appreciation. What are the words we always want to express, but often don’t because we’re afraid to or distracted by other things? How can we enable intimate acts of uplifting others?
Make Uplifting Others Contagious
In addition to uplifting others on a peer to peer scale, we learned that witnessing a collective action inspires others to pay it forward. How might we create a collective experience that make acts of appreciation visible and joyful? To truly spark joy and delight, we needed to design something that was scientifically proved to spark joy: balloons. By centralizing all notes in one location and pairing with balloons, we believed we could create an inspiring atmosphere of appreciation.
Create a platform
However, uplifting others starts with individual acts. How could we create a system for people to participate? We designed a ‘virtual mailbox’, where students could email notes of appreciation to others over a 1 week period. Participants were promised their notes would be delivered, but they did not know how.
3. Activate
Installation
At 3AM in the dark, the team stealthily pinned 400 notes and balloons to different grid points on the Arts Quad.
Designing for Joy
Participants awoke to a new message in their inbox, asking them to pick up a note pinned on a quadrant location on the Arts Quad and written for them from a peer. Not knowing what to expect, hundreds of students and faculty arrived over the course of a day, to a whimsical installation of 400 balloons. Along the way, participants and passerby reconnected with old friends and created conversations with strangers. They were able to be a part of a larger community and be inspired to continue acts of kindness and uplifting others.
Creating Tradition
Since 2017, Lifted has become an annual Cornell University tradition.
Scaling Lifted to NYC
1. Identifying Cultural Issues
Bringing Lifted to Gensler’s NYC Consulting Studio
Through conversations with Gensler colleagues over the course of the year, I found people within the studio often felt:
Disconnected from other teams within the studio due to fast growth (from 50 to 70 people)
Underappreciated or undervalued in their work
Wanted to express appreciation to teammates and collaborators but felt overwhelmed with keeping up with the day to day
With a cohort of other colleagues, we wondered how we might create small acts of appreciation and trust. We decided to test the Lifted model within our studio over a one week period.
2. Designing Nudges
Team members were prompted with an email to stop by the ‘Mailbox’ to write a special note of appreciation. Delivery was promised, but the method and date was kept a surprise.
“Has someone gone out of their way? Now is your chance to make their day! Next week from Monday to Friday, You’ll have the chance to have your say, A note of appreciation, a note of thanks Maybe the start of a series of pranks? Whatever it is, whatever it may be, Just know that your kindness is key! Take a pen and write a special note, Put it in the red mailbox and by the end of the week it will float!”
3. Creating an Uplifted Environment
The Lifted team received 500 notes in the Mailbox and sorted each into stacks by name. Each stack of hand-written notes were hand-tied to a balloon and placed on each person’s desk. On an early Monday morning, teammates arrived to discover a joyful installation of 60 balloons, each attached to a personalized stack of notes addressed to them. For the remainder of the day, colleagues read their notes and connected more closely with their colleagues.
‘One lift, two lift, three lift, four, Actually there were many, many more! Over 500 little notes of joy have gone out, Filled with words of thanks and appreciation, no doubt! A big thank you to all who wrote a sweet little note, We hope you enjoy seeing your messages float! We must say, our consulting crew is pretty great, Let’s all find more time to celebrate!’
The launch was successful in shaping a culture of appreciation and has become an annual Gensler Consulting Studio Tradition.
