A few years ago, I sat in an association budget meeting where a world-renowned scholar proclaimed: "We need to stop giving plaques! They are a waste of money! People leave them in their rooms!"
You could hear a pin drop.
Then a cacophony of voices yelled. "Are you crazy?" "Maybe you have too many. I have just one!" "Nothing will get done!"
Later, someone muttered. "White privilege." Another commented privately, "How out of touch is he?" A third laughed, "He thought that would pass?"
The bespectacled, goateed, & very senior scholar backed down & the meeting turned to other ways to cut the budget.
Why was a reasonable proposal? By a well-respected scholar? Greeted with such acrimony?
Simply put. Academic culture.
Academics often fail to say thank you, give high-fives, & pats on the back.
So we treasure opportunities to receive them formally.
I can count on one hand the number of times that a Department Chair thanked me for my service in my first ten years as a faculty member.
The phenomenon isn't just local.
I can count on my fingers & toes the number of times that a member walked up & thanked me for service in my ten years on the board of my professional association.
Many academics seem to have forgotten the power of a simple thank you for motivating good behavior & sustaining community.
Sara Algoe's work suggests that thank you's perform three essential functions. They help people:
* form new social relationships (find);
* orient to existing relationships (remind); and,
* promote investment in relationships (bind).
Each function is essential to sustaining #globallydistributed#intellectualcommunities. Thank yous encourage trust, diminish suspicion & lower aggression.
Absent thank yous, we can expect a continuation of the #culturewars that have undermined the academy in the #UnitedStates & created global divides in some disciplines.
How to fix the problem?
A first step is simply saying thank you & recognizing people for their work in your #academiccommunity.
A second step is creating #awardstructures, where you & your #colleagues recognize & thank people within your department or team.
A third step is to show gratitude in your correspondence. A simple thank you creates social currency & makes you feel valued.
I was reminded of the power of thank you, the past week when my host thanked me each for contributing to the work of her chair - it made me feel valued & look forward to the next meeting.
So, I'm writing a simple call to academics: be liberal with the thank you's, plaques, & expressions of appreciation; doing so will help us build a stronger academy.
Against the backdrop of global conflict & anti-intellectual populist movements, we need positive, shared habits to sustain our diverse, global, intellectual communities.
Thank you for reading! Have a great hump day!
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