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Gratitude and trust

Foster trust in your team
NEC Thanks Card
Let's send words of thanks to each other by using
NEC Thanks Card!

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Aim to create a cycle of gratitude and kindness

Basic concept
The cycle of gratitude and kindness is at the core of our concept. When we are shown kindness, we are grateful, and when we are grateful, we want to return kindness. This creates a cascading cycle of kind acts and further gratitude.

Derived concept
The cycle of kind acts and gratitude is contagious. When someone is kind to us, we are motivated to be kind to others and the recipient of our kindness is motivated to do the same to others. In other words, a chain-reaction of gratitude and kindness is created.

43% of Japanese people are not good with gratitude

Reasons for not feeling or expressing gratitude

  • The act is accepted as normal: Not feeling appreciation for acts that are expected or considered normal
  • Too much time has passed: Giving up after missing an opportunity to express gratitude
  • Shame: Feeling embarrassed to express gratitude
  • Undervalue: Feeling something is not worth showing appreciation for

Japanese people are not particularly prone to gratitude
Unlike Western cultures, it has been found that feelings of gratitude and Sumanai are closely intertwined in Japanese culture [1]. As the feelings of Sumanai grow stronger, the feelings of gratitude diminish.

The NEC Thanks Card is a prototype application that allows team members to freely express and record their feelings of gratitude.

The app was developed with the following people in mind

  • People in search of a replacement for thank you cards that can be used with remote work
  • People looking for a free gratitude tool for use within their team
  • People looking for a gratitude tool that is not based on a point reward system

How the app can be used

  • Keep a gratitude journal to record and reflect on the things you feel grateful for
  • Send thank you messages to team members and share thank you messages from members
  • Read articles on gratitude to deepen your understanding of gratitude
  • Use AI to suggest ways to express gratitude that the recipient is likely to appreciate
  • Send thanks anonymously

Building ability for gratitude fosters a sense of well-being

Improved sense of well-being
The results of the Gratitude Questionnaire, developed by Professor McCullough, have shown that people who are more grateful have a stronger sense of subjective well-being [2]. A few studies have found that writing down three things you are grateful for each day builds the ability for gratitude and improves subjective well-being [3].

Gratitude journaling
The NEC Thanks Card has a "Gratitude Journal" feature that allows you to record things you are grateful for. To develop the ability for gratitude, we recommend registering three things you are grateful for each day. The trick is to abandon the habit of apologizing, which is common among Japanese people, and write only what you are grateful for.

Gratitude helps build stronger relationships and trust.

Find, remind, and bind
Professor Algoe, a leading researcher on gratitude, developed a theory from her research called "Find, Remind, and Bind," which focuses on the functions of gratitude in romantic relationships [4]. According to this theory, gratitude helps in finding new relationships, reminds individuals of current good relationships, and binds individuals closer together, thereby strengthening the bond and trust between two people.

Express gratitude
The NEC Thanks Card allows you to express gratitude to team members. Showing gratitude is a good way to build trust within the team. However, if there is a feeling of distrust, your gratitude will not be perceived as genuine, so introducing the NEC Thanks Card is effective when trust exists between members.

Gratitude inspires acts of kindness in the giver and receiver of gratitude, and even in third-party witnesses to someone expressing gratitude.

Inspire acts of kindness
According to a study by Associate Professor Kuranaga and her associates, givers and receivers of gratitude exhibit prosocial behaviors like acts of kindness [5]. Professor Algoe's research also reported that people who witness the exchange of gratitude are also inspired to be kinder [6].

Share gratitude
The NEC Thanks Card provides a timeline of gratitude expressed by team members. Expressing gratitude to others may be embarrassing at first but it can potentially create a workplace culture in which gratitude and appreciation become the norm.

Social networking based on expressions of sincere gratitude helps visualize interpersonal trust relationships within teams

Gratitude network and level of trust
According to our research, the structure of a social network formed on gratitude is indicative of the level of trust within the team [7]. We found that the more strongly connected the networks of gratitude are within a team, the stronger the trust within the team.

Visualize the level of trust
The NEC Thanks Card digitizes gratitude, and data on the social network structure formed by gratitude is saved in the database. The data is used to calculate the level of trust, and changes of trust among team members can be observed over time. This app could be used as a new team management tool to visualize trust within a team.

Points are not awarded for expressing gratitude

Undermining effect
Experiments conducted by Professor Deci and associates have shown that extrinsic rewards (such as monetary rewards) can undermine intrinsic motivation [8]; once extrinsic motivators are used, it is difficult to go back to intrinsic ones.

Digitizing sincere gratitude
Extrinsic rewards such as awarding points for expressing gratitude undermines intrinsic motivation for the behavior. To prevent people from expressing gratitude for the sake of earning points, we have decided not to base the NEC Thanks Card on a points reward system.

Long-term use entails more than merely installing the app

Duration of one to two months
The results of our experiment showed that simply installing the NEC Thanks Card was not sufficient; many people stopped using it one to two months after installation. This is believed to be because people are initially excited over the app but then gradually lose interest. Currently, we are constantly updating the educational articles to help prevent boredom.

How to encourage continued use
After repeated experiments, we have been relatively successful in encouraging continued use of the app using the following methods:

  • Creating many gratitude promoters (may occur spontaneously)
  • Establishing a rule and making it a habit to thank people at the end of the workday
  • Making it a time-limited event and clearly specifying when the event will end

Simply saying thank you is not enough to convey the gratitude we truly feel

Saying thank you is not enough
Professor Algoe compared two types of appreciation, self-benefit (describes how the receiver is better off for having been helped) and other-praising (acknowledges and validates the actions of the giver), and found the latter to be effective in building trust [9]. On the other hand, in our experiments, gratitude expressed with a mere "thank you" did not leave much of an impression on the test subject.

Use gratitude tips
When asked about their most memorable gratitude experiences, test subjects stated their desire to feel understood, admired, praised, and appreciated for the process and effort of producing a result. Based on this feedback, the NEC Thanks Card has a "Gratitude Tip" feature that recommends words of gratitude that recipients might appreciate.

How organizations or teams can sign up to use the NEC Thanks Card (research prototype)

Request a free Company Code
We will issue you a Company Code that all members of your organization or team can use by entering it into the NEC Thanks Card settings.

Note: The NEC Thanks Card service will be discontinued as of October 1, 2024.

Benefits of using the app in the organization/team

  1. Only members are displayed, making it easy to search for people
  2. Shows the Top 3 in the organization/team ranking
  3. No information is leaked outside the organization/team

Reference

  • [1]
    Washizu, N., & Naito, T. (2015). The emotions sumanai, gratitude, and indebtedness, and their relations to interpersonal orientation and psychological well-being among Japanese university students. International Perspectives in Psychology, 4(3), 209-222.
  • [2]
    Emmonse, R. A., & Mccullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
  • [3]
    Chancellor, J., Layous, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2015). Recalling positive events at work makes employees feel happier, move more, but interact less: A 6-week randomized controlled intervention at a Japanese workplace. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(4), 871-887.
  • [4]
    Algoe, S. B. (2012). Find, remind, and bind: The functions of gratitude in everyday relationships. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(6), 455-469.
  • [5]
    (a) Kuranaga Hitomi; Higuchi, Masataka. The effect of cognitive appraisals on emotional experiences of gratitude in the situations arousing gratitude. The Japanese Journal of Research on Emotions. 2011, Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages 19-27. (b) Kuranaga, Hitomi; Higuchi, Masataka; Fukuda, Tetsuya. The psychological process of exhibiting prosocial behaviors after receiving gratitude. The Japanese Journal of Psychology. 2018, Volume 89, Issue 1, Pages 40-49.
  • [6]
    Algoe, S. B., Dwyer, P. C., Younge, A., & Oveis, C. (2020). A new perspective on the social functions of emotions: Gratitude and the witnessing effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(1), 40.
  • [7]
    Yamamoto, J. I., Fukui, T., Nishii, K., Kato, I., & Pham, Q. T. (2022). Digitalizing Gratitude and Building Trust through Technology in a Post-COVID-19 World—Report of a Case from Japan. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 8(1), 22.
  • [8]
    Deci, E. L. Intrinsic motivation, Plenum Press.: NY, USA, 1975
  • [9]
    Algoe, S. B., Kurtz, L. E., & Hilaire, N. M. (2016). Putting the “you” in “thank you” examining other-praising behavior as the active relational ingredient in expressed gratitude. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(7), 658-666.