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Giving Thanks for Community - #thankitforward

By Shannon Abram posted 11-21-2016 09:57

  

For the fourth year we're celebrating the idea of #thankitforward - thanking the people in your life (personally and professionally) who have made a difference in your year by letting them know. And today it seems like this small act of gratitude and kindness will go an especially long way in these last few weeks of a turbulent year.

In the spirit of reflection and gratitude we encourage you to look back at 2016 and identify three (or more!) people who made a difference in your work and life this past year and send them a thank you via email, snail mail, or Twitter, (or whatever medium works best for you.) 

Think about:

  • Who inspired you? Brought on a “aha moment”?
  • Who was unwavering in their support of your work?
  • Which executive made a difference with their sponsorship or participation?
  • Which community member or advocate showed up in a big way?
  • Who covered you so you could unplug for a vacation — whether a day or a week?
  • Who talked you through a tough situation?
  • Whose blog posts or Twitter handle kept you well informed? Or laughing!

You get the idea! We’d love if you tag any social thanks #thankitforward so we can see the gratitude spread. Of course – some thanks yous are private and we 100% encourage those as well. Our goal is to inspire reflection on your journey this past year, and help identify those that helped make it possible.

So tell us. Who will you be thanking it forward to this year? I'll be sharing my list in the next few weeks! 

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Rachel Happe
11-21-2016 13:39

Here are a few of TheCR Network members that personally made a difference to me this year:

  • Christopher Parsons, because he saw more value in work I was doing than I did - and initiated a project to help demonstrate that value. The result was an updated WOL framework, a case study with Shepley Bulfinch and the opportunity to write in Harvard Business Review.  
  • Lori Harrison-Smith, who advocated for our assistance with their ESN strategy and then used that work to make significant headway in organizing and structuring progress. While we have many clients, they do not all use our work as effectively. Seeing that strategy translated into action is awesome.
  • J.J. Lovett, who has quietly been listening and absorbing our research and then using it to mange the CA community program and, in the process, showing us how our models and data can be applied to make progress and sell community. In addition, he adds his enthusiasm and invests time helping us succeed, providing a powerful advocate for TheCR.

In all of these cases, Chris, Lori and J.J. showed me how I can help them. We all have complementary skills that allowed us to succeed faster by working together than we could have on our own. It is the best kind of success. Thank you!