Hi, Scott - excellent post on a subject which does not get as much attention as it should.

I think recognition and reward of employees is essential, and when we do this well, the benefits are almost unlimited in terms of increased job satisfaction, better productivity, less conflict, increased retention, and so on.

This is one of the most specific posts I have seen on this topic, going way beyond the idea that money is not the only or best motivator.   Let me comment on a couple of things from the many things that caught my attention:

1)  "What form do you like the reward to take?"  You listed many possibilities here and one that stuck out for me personally was to be leveraged as an expert.  I don't particularly like the term "leveraged", but I know what you mean and this way of rewarding a person speaks directly to folks like me who seek validation for our skills and our abilities.

2)  "Get everyone in on the act" is a great idea that  my experience tells me is much more difficult to implement and maintain that we might think.  In one large corporation, few folks beyond the supervisor/manager level utilized the peer-to-peer acknowledge tools which were richly produced and widely available.  The result was that management was seen as the font of the attention, which is not significantly different from the status quo.

In another, mostly professionals and mostly online corporation, the peer-to-peer acknowledgment program (also well-designed and distributed widely) has just been "killed", due to lack of use.  Not sure what the answer is, but it ain't easy:)

3)  "Celebrate First Downs and Touchdowns" - again, many organizations are much better at celebrating when they score, but not so good at recognizing the movement down the field (to keep the football thing going:).  This hooks nicely with another section where you make good points about clarifying what is being measured, the milestones, and so on.  If people know that doing one step is a big deal, they will probably do it better and just might celebrate doing it themselves:)

I guess that is what you are putting forth as an end goal - get the organization to the point where leaders are not the only or primary generators of recognition and rewards ... get everyone so engaged in the process that it becomes part of the culture.

Great stuff, as always:)

John