My peers have told you about SERVice stars. Designed to exercise social proof and consistency, they are publicly posted paper dinosaurs where you commit to a certain number of service activities. Stickers are added for every day you volunteer to keep track of your progress to your goal. I must admit that beyond that transparent connection to FBE principles, I thought they were pretty gimmicky. Not that I didn't like them or think that the dinosaurs were the cutest thing ever, I was just skeptical about their ability to help. Well, the FBE principles predictably pulled through and we could see people signing up because others had or committing to particular events because they'd signed up on our dinosaurs.
What I really didn't expect to see was a direct value exchange. However, a couple days after SERVice stars came out I had a friend approach me about her lack of stickers. When I got the chance I gave her her sticker. Today she saw it and got extremely excited. "my STICKER! Ist so SHINY!!! and sparkley!!...: so on and so forth. I don't doubt she could have sold the knitted work she made at Friday service for enough to buy her own pack of sparkly stickers. For some reason though, it was so special to her to receive this gift from us. Reciprocity, sometimes the act of giving back is more important than what is given.
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