Just Do It: Letting Goodness Show

Recently Seth Goodin sent an order to customink for some shirts and within days had a note from them asking if the shirts were for a charity event.

Lori, from Customink wrote

"If that’s the case, CustomInk would love to make a small donation to your team or to the charity itself on your behalf.

Please let me know if your order is for one of these events. If you would like us to pitch in and support your cause, please include information about your charity event, a link if you have one or the organization’s name if there is no link to a team web page."

As Seth explained in his blog customink just does this as a matter of policy. It looks like they are straightforward about it, not making a big deal out of it or making one jump through hoops in order to "qualify."

"regardless of whether the customer has a blog or not. They don't do it as an inducement, they just do it.

"That's it. No policy, no standard operating procedure, no promise in advance. Just plain generosity."

Sometimes when we least expect it, gestures large and small touch our hearts.

And the good will that ensue can't be measured - unless my friend Katie Paine has figured out a way to do it - which wouldn't actually surprise me because she's a genius. But she says that some things are immeasurable, and if I read her right the measurement doesn't matter if we could manage it.

Still, Seth writes that "the value of a perk is inversely related to the expectation of that perk'"

In other words goodness for goodness sake, kindness for kindness sake is it's own best reward?

I was thinking that the values taught to me in parochial school should serve me well if that's the case. And that maybe the best lessons in life really are those we should have learned in kindergarten.

It's more than holding hands when we walk across the street. It's about seeing an instance where we CAN do something, even if not asked - and just plain doing it,

What good can we do today without being asked?

 

Please let me know if your order is for one of these events. If you would like us to pitch in and support your cause, please include information about your charity event, a link if you have one or the organization’s name if there is no link to a team web page."

As Seth explained in his blog customink just does this as a matter of policy. It looks like they are straightforward about it, not making a big deal out of it or making one jump through hoops in order to "qualify."

"regardless of whether the customer has a blog or not. They don't do it as an inducement, they just do it.

"That's it. No policy, no standard operating procedure, no promise in advance. Just plain generosity."

Sometimes when we least expect it, gestures large and small touch our hearts.

And the good will that ensue can't be measured - unless my friend Katie Paine has figured out a way to do it - which wouldn't actually surprise me because she's a genius. But she says that some things are immeasurable, and if I read her right the measurement doesn't matter if we could manage it.

Still, Seth writes that "the value of a perk is inversely related to the expectation of that perk'"

In other words goodness for goodness sake, kindness for kindness sake is it's own best reward?

I was thinking that the values taught to me in parochial school should serve me well if that's the case. And that maybe the best lessons in life really are those we should have learned in kindergarten.

It's more than holding hands when we walk across the street. It's about seeing an instance where we CAN do something, even if not asked - and just plain doing it,

What good can we do today without being asked?

 

Comments

[kdpaine]

Susan, I CAN measure it, but not in ways that would satisfy Amanda Chappel or your average bean counter. Doing something because it's the right thing to do is to a certain extent its own reward, but it has immeasurable (no scratch that, enormous) impact on your relationships (increased trust and commitment and satisfaction) as well as forgiveness in a crisis and loyalty. But the paradox is that most people who do good deeds, don't care what the outcome is. And the people who care most about outcomes, do the fewest good deeds. I'll never forgot the first time I measured PR for Ben & Jerry's. Ben Cohen couldn't have cared less how much great press his good deeds got him, but they used it to make the distributors happier.