Name my 'Most Improved' Award

April 26, 2016 4:13 AM

My company is handing out an award to 3 plants that have improved this year. It seems weird to hand out a 'Most Improved - Third Place' award. What's a good substitute for 'Most Improved?'
posted by Caravantea to Grab Bag (12 answers total)

What, exactly, was improved? Output? Safety? Efficiency? You could give the award for "Increased [foo]", where [foo] is whatever you're measuring. You could possibly even give three different awards if the three plants improved in different areas, which would avoid the whole "third place" thing: one gets an award for increased output, another for increased safety, and so forth.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:24 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'd give them all the same "Most Improved" award. You don't need to give 'places'.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:35 AM on April 26, 2016 [12 favorites]

I'd give them all the same "Most Improved" award. You don't need to give 'places'.

Second this. Alternatively, what about "Most Improved - Winner" for 1st, and "Most Improved - Runner Up" or "Most Improved - Highly Commended" for the other two?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:46 AM on April 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'd call it the Excelsior Award.
posted by STFUDonnie at 4:49 AM on April 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

"Third Most Improved" or just "Most Improved" like Ruthless Bunny says.
posted by gorcha at 5:12 AM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Rising star award.
posted by taff at 5:27 AM on April 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Up(a)wards!
posted by Chitownfats at 5:29 AM on April 26, 2016

I'd avoid the word "improved", because it focuses attention on the idea that things were "bad" before. It also sounds a little weak and kindergarten-y, and, frankly, not very exciting.

I like the idea of "growth" or something that focuses on the actual hard work that individual people put into this. Something like "change" or "you did it" or something like that.

(You might be interested in looking at the "Punished by rewards" articles out there in the world, too).
posted by amtho at 5:38 AM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I like taff's "rising star" idea, and if you need to distinguish between first, second, and third places, make them gold, silver, and bronze.
posted by lakeroon at 6:45 AM on April 26, 2016

If you want to encourage cycles of continuous improvement, rather than a race to some arbitrary finish line where things have been improved and are therefore done, you could go for:

--Continuous Improvement Award
--Excellence in Improvement
--Improvement Award

For any of these, there could be Gold/Silver/Bronze awards or 3/2/1 stars to designate levels.
posted by cubby at 6:47 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

We had a "Striving" award for a student who did not have great grades, but who was noticeably turning their school career around.

You could also have a Somebody's Choice Award, where the somebody is someone whose opinion makes sense in your context. They can give the specific reason as part of the award.
posted by blnkfrnk at 6:58 AM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

You could name your 3 levels of progress award after 3 fast animals or 3 fast vehicles, so that it's ranked but not quantified, eg "Shooting Ahead: Jet" "Shooting Ahead: Concorde" "Shooting Ahead: Rocket"
posted by aimedwander at 9:06 AM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]