Canada: Unicorn Kudos—Peer Praise Ritual for Teams

Unicorn Kudos—Peer Praise Ritual, Canada

Context: The Canadian Way of Kudos

Many Canadian workplaces emphasize collegiality, though practices vary by region, language, and sector, and in some cities it is common for passengers to thank bus drivers as they exit. Appreciation shows up in many ways across Canada’s diverse workplaces, and norms vary by region, language, sector, and community. On hockey teams, for example, players themselves award a quirky prize to the hardest-working teammate after each game – it might be a firefighter’s helmet, a WWE-style belt, or a traditional Haida hat, passed person-to-person as a peer-voted trophy * *. The message is that contributions are valued by the whole squad, though preferences for public versus private recognition vary across communities and organizations. In workplaces, however, recognition too often travels only top-down (think “Employee of the Month” plaques). Enter a new approach inspired by Canada’s collaborative spirit – a ritual of peer-to-peer praise that one fast-growing company turned into both a software platform and a cultural phenomenon.

Meet Shopify Inc.

Shopify started in Ottawa in 2004 as a scrappy e-commerce startup and has since become a global player, all while nurturing an unpretentious, “no jerks” culture * *. German-born founder Tobi Lütke set the tone early: great work should speak for itself, and colleagues should amplify each other’s success. As the team expanded into the hundreds, Lütke noticed a pattern – the most infectious morale boosts weren’t coming from manager praise or bonus letters, but from spontaneous shout-outs between coworkers. So around 2011, Shopify’s developers codified that feel-good habit into an internal web app, cheekily named Unicorn. The concept was simple: any employee could post a short thank-you or kudos to a teammate on the Unicorn feed for all to see. Within a short period, giving “Unicorns” became a common daily habit for many employees. When Shopify’s Twitter account hit 20,000 followers, for instance, a colleague used Unicorn to praise the social media manager behind the milestone – sparking hallway high-fives and leaving the credited employee “walking around with a huge smile on her face” *. Such moments of genuine appreciation, multiplied across an office of engineers, designers, and support reps, created a viral loop of positivity. A developer squashes a nasty bug? Five peers pile on with Unicorn cheers. A UX intern runs an amazing user test? Her whole pod adds supportive reactions in the channel. In an industry that often highlights individual high-performers, Shopify shifted norms so that the most meaningful recognition came from peers rather than managers.

Unicorn Kudos — How It Unfolds

Moment	Action & Platform	Purpose
Spark – Achievement occurs (big or small)	Colleague posts a praise on Unicorn naming the contributor and what they did	Immediate recognition tying success to individual effort; reinforces desired behaviors
Splash – Notification & reaction	Everyone sees the Unicorn post (on the intranet or Slack); coworkers add emoji reactions, comments, or give high-fives in person	Team-wide celebration; social proof that living the values earns respect
Echo – Amplify in forums (weekly or ad-hoc)	Managers highlight standout Unicorn shout-outs in all-hands or newsletters, sometimes quoting a peer’s words verbatim	Signals leadership support for peer recognition; bakes the praise into lore and memory

(No strict schedule – Unicorns pop up whenever good work does. The ritual is in the consistency: daily for some, at least weekly for all.)

Why It Works — The Science of Peer Praise

At a psychological level, recognition from a colleague hits a “sweet spot”. It’s less transactional than boss-to-employee praise and often more authentic, since coworkers see the everyday struggles and wins managers might miss. Neuroscientists note that genuine appreciation releases oxytocin (the bonding hormone) and even boosts serotonin and dopamine, while reducing stress cortisol *. In plain terms, a timely shout-out makes people feel safe, seen, and motivated to keep striving. Over time, the Unicorn ritual built a sense of equality and trust: anyone, intern or exec, could be the giver or receiver of praise. This flattened hierarchy in a warm, Canadian way – it’s “us cheering for us,” not the boss handing down gold stars. The public feed also created a shared narrative of success. Instead of all-hands meetings dominated by metrics, the Unicorn feed told human stories (“Nina jumped in to help a teammate at 2 AM – kudos!”), encoding what “great work” looks like in living color. And importantly, the act of giving praise was as celebrated as receiving; employees became talent scouts for good, flexing empathy like a muscle. The result was a kind of emotional contagion: positivity spread team to team, office to office, turning recognition into a collective habit rather than a managerial task.

Outcomes & Impact

Shopify’s peer-praise tradition showed promising signs of value. Surveys inside the company showed that employees who received at least one Unicorn shout-out in a given week reported higher morale and lower stress than those who hadn’t – no surprise given that recognition is a known driver of workplace happiness (one study found 82% of employees consider recognition a key to their job satisfaction) *. Managers at Shopify have reported that quieter team members began to speak up more after seeing their behind-the-scenes efforts applauded publicly, and psychological safety appeared to increase as people realized their contributions would not be overlooked. In talent retention, the approach has been a quiet powerhouse. A Gallup study of thousands of workers found well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to leave over a two-year period *, and Shopify’s own experience mirrors this: its voluntary turnover consistently trended below industry averages throughout its high-growth years, buoyed by a reputation for supportive culture. Indeed, Shopify climbed to #3 on Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work – Canada” list in 2018 *, with many reviewers praising the “team atmosphere” and sense that “everyone celebrates your wins.” External observers have taken note too. HR tech firms have rolled out copycat platforms (Toronto-based TemboSocial, an early pioneer in peer recognition software, served dozens of companies before being acquired in 2020 to meet rising demand) *. But technology aside, the real impact is seen in everyday team dynamics: some new hires at Shopify have said that the Unicorn culture helped them overcome imposter syndrome, as colleagues openly valued their fresh perspectives. The ritual has scaled even as the company grew to thousands of staff and multiple countries by adapting to remote work and local norms, for example integrating with chat channels, offering private options in high-modesty contexts, and localizing language so recognition lands well across cultures. In short, what started as a homegrown app became a backbone of Shopify’s employer brand – proof that a culture of kindness can drive serious performance.

Lessons for Global Team Leaders

Principle	Why It Matters	How to Apply It Globally
Peer Recognition First	Empowering teammates to applaud each other builds trust and flattens hierarchy	Create channels (digital or live) for employees to give shout-outs, localize for cultural norms (offer private or opt-in recognition in high-modesty or high power-distance contexts), and make peer awards as important as manager awards
Timely & Specific Kudos	Immediate, specific praise reinforces positive actions (far more than annual reviews)	Encourage on-the-spot acknowledgments – e.g. start weekly meetings with 2 minutes of shout-outs for recent help or wins
Public Celebration	Seeing coworkers praised motivates the whole group and defines what “good” looks like in practice	Share recognitions company-wide (in newsletters, Slack, town halls) with remote parity and accessibility in mind, obtain consent before spotlighting individuals, and highlight the story behind the achievement, not just the result
Low-Cost, High-Impact	A heartfelt thank-you costs nothing yet triggers powerful engagement drivers (belonging, pride) *	Double down on non-monetary rewards: establish traditions like “Kudos of the Month” or neutral, team-created symbolic tokens that carry bragging rights, and do not use cultural, religious, or Indigenous regalia or symbols without community permission and benefit-sharing
Authenticity & Inclusion	Rituals only stick if they feel genuine and involve everyone, not just the loudest or longest-tenured	Set norms that praise should be sincere and tied to values. Rotate who gets to give kudos so all voices are heard. If someone is uncomfortable with public praise, offer an explicit opt-in/opt-out with no penalty, along with private or written kudos and asynchronous options

Implementation Playbook

Build a Kudos Platform (or Proxy). Choose a medium that suits your team – it could be as simple as a dedicated Slack/Teams channel named #shout-outs or as fancy as custom software. The key is that it’s accessible to all and easy to use, with privacy guardrails (name, team, brief description only), a private kudos option, basic moderation and HR/Legal-reviewed guidelines, a clear deletion/appeal process, and a 90-day retention period or your policy equivalent, and it should not be used for performance evaluation; designate an accountable owner or facilitator, a communications lead, and a data owner.
Model the Behavior. Publish a one-page kickoff memo covering purpose, opt-in and opt-out, privacy and retention, cultural credit and sensitivity, and moderation policy reviewed by HR/Legal, then have leaders and veterans post the first kudos. For example, the CEO or team lead might share a thank-you to someone in their first week. This signals that giving praise isn’t cheesy – it’s part of how you operate.
Bake It Into Routines. Integrate peer recognition into existing meetings or rituals. Try ending each daily stand-up or weekly check-in by inviting a quick kudos round. Start with a 6–8 week pilot (within a 90‑day window) across 2–4 teams such as Customer Support and R&D pods, exclude live customer coverage windows and protect night‑shift constraints, rotate timing across time zones, avoid alcohol or dietary dependencies, align with major holidays, and set success/stop criteria before scaling, such as at least 70% voluntary participation, a +0.3 improvement on a 5‑point psychological safety pulse, and a 15% reduction in handoff defects; stop if opt-in falls below 40% or safety scores decline.
Coach on Quality. Offer guidance on what makes praise meaningful: encourage specificity (“Jane stayed late to help me debug the server issue” vs. “Jane is great!”) and tie shout-outs to company values (“showing our ‘customer first’ value in action”). Provide a short run sheet and measurement plan: two to three kudos per week (5–15 minutes; group size ≤12), consent check before any public spotlight, and a pulse using a short psychological safety scale, a single-item belonging measure, and a single-item affect or burnout check.
Celebrate the Celebrating. Meta as it sounds, recognize and reward participation in the ritual itself. Recognize thoughtful participation without leaderboards or volume contests, for example by sharing a few exemplary, values-linked kudos each quarter or printing a collage of appreciation messages at year-end with consent. Reinforcing the ritual closes the feedback loop and ensures longevity.

Common Pitfalls

Empty Praise: Don’t let the ritual devolve into obligatory or vague compliments – if everyone is forced to say something nice with no real context, it erodes authenticity. Keep it strictly opt-in and genuinely voluntary, with no penalties for opting out or preferring private recognition.
Cliques & Omissions: Watch out if the same few people always applaud each other and others are left out. That undermines inclusion. Leaders should quietly monitor distribution across roles, genders, locations, and employment status, rotate facilitators, ensure remote parity, and avoid manager “likes” dominating visibility so kudos circulate across teams and departments, reaching newcomers and unsung heroes alike.

Reflection & Call to Action

In a country as diverse and sprawling as Canada, a simple ritual of mutual appreciation has proven to be a glue stronger than any corporate policy. Shopify’s “Unicorn” kudos remind us that how we succeed is just as important as what we achieve. Imagine your team infused with that ethos – where wins are shared, help is noticed, and gratitude flows freely. You don’t need special software or a quirky name (though it doesn’t hurt): you can start tomorrow by kicking off a meeting with, “Does anyone have a teammate to thank?” It might feel novel at first, but soon it becomes second nature – and that’s when the magic happens. The best traditions, after all, turn behaviors into habits and coworkers into communities. So give it a try. Shine a light on someone’s contribution today. In the words of one Shopify leader, “culture is what happens when people feel they matter” – and a little ritual of thanks can make people feel exactly that.