Receiving and expressing gratitude has numerous proven benefits - from improving self-esteem to building trust to increasing productivity. But in today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, it can be challenging to know when or how to do this. Some might feel that an attitude of gratitude doesn’t align with the existing corporate culture. Others may not know how to fit intentional acts of gratitude into their already chaotic schedules.

This is why I want to develop "Little Gives", a mobile app aimed to help employees build a habit of gratitude in the workplace. This app would inspire regular acts of gratitude by simply eliminating common barriers, such as time constraints or not knowing how to best support your colleagues. This platform would allow you to build a flexible gratitude habit schedule, receive push notification reminders, track your progress, and celebrate wins through gamification techniques.

Here’s how the app would function: 

Like most habit building apps, users (in this case, employees), would start by creating a basic profile, where they indicate their role in the organization, level of seniority, location, and other basic information. After you complete your profile, here's what happens:

1. Build a gratitude schedule: Indicate how many acts of gratitude you can complete per week (acts could be organized in 5 min, 30 min, or 1 hour, increments). Flexible scheduling lets you plan habits by morning, afternoon, or evening and creates a low-stress routine that is easy to commit to.
   
   
2. Select your preferred acts of gratitude: There will be a list of 30+ suggested acts of gratitude that you can choose from, such as buying a colleague lunch or saying thank you to someone who doesn’t get much appreciation, or coordinating a team happy hour. The acts of kindness could be tailored to the individual's seniority at the company. For example, managers might have different prompts than interns to increase relevance.
   
   
3. Easily connect with your colleagues: You will have easy access to a list of all other employees in the organization, and their bios. You can either pre-select individuals you want to give special attention to or choose “random” mode to connect with new people across the company.
   
   
4. Get reminded: Push notifications are available to remind individuals to stay on track. You can also sync your calendar to the app to have it remind you to follow up with an act a gratitude after meetings.
   
   
5. Track your wins: To keep employees motivated, they can build inspiring streaks within the app when they follow through with acts of gratitude.
   
   
6. Celebrate: Every month, the app will algorithmically determine who invested the most hours of gratitude and who invested the most acts of gratitude. An award will be give to each of these two individuals.
   
   
7. Journal: Ability to write down one thing you are grateful for each day, with the option to share with other registered employees on a social board within the app.